


Sanctuary

by Milieva



Series: Grithien and Frithien [8]
Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: (Background relationships: Fuu/Ferio & Hikaru/Lantis/Eagle), (Umi & Ascot are good friends), (updating at least once a month), Canon - Manga, Clef is all grown-up, Consensual Sex, Discussion of Abortion, F/M, Political Shenanigans, Post-Canon, Umi is almost 18, Underage Drinking, Unplanned Pregnancy, and she will argue she's not underage by Cephiran standards, forbidden relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2018-10-30 16:49:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 118,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10880937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieva/pseuds/Milieva
Summary: Clef somewhat accidentally invites Umi to stay at his house for a week, starting an irrevocable cascade of changes in their relationship.Unfortunately, some of the old laws of Cephiro still stand, and the consequences of this summer will spiral far out of their control…





	1. In which Umi arrives at Clef’s house.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been ages since I have posted anything new for Rayearth, or any fandom for that matter. Though I suppose this isn't entirely new. I started posting the first version of this fic back on Fanfiction.net years ago, as bribery for Dragon of Winter Nights to finish Protecting You.
> 
> Now, older, wiser, and still obsessed with my first true OTP, I have picked this story back up and have many plans to make this into a fun frolic. I will continue to post the edited version of this fic on FFN, but I will be posting the explicit one over here.
> 
> This story is mostly manga based with perhaps a little anime flavouring when it comes to the knights' relationships with the other lands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 20 Nov 2017: This chapter has been updated a little to match up with the plot line. A large chunk of it was still the original draft and as the path of the storyline has changed slightly, it needed a little tweaking. Don't worry, it's nothing big, just a few little details added in so later bits make sense.

Umi always felt strange transporting by herself. The pull on her own was just a little strong, and it left her feeling a bit lightheaded and woozy when she made it through the gateway. Today was no different.

At first, Umi had only travelled to and from Cephiro together with Fuu and Hikaru, accepting she would just have shorter visits than they could since her school’s holiday schedule didn’t match up with theirs. It was far easier to make the trip with more than one, easiest with all three. It was only this summer that she’d finally gotten so frustrated she learned how to do it on her own. Umi was done missing visits just because she was the only one out of school.

This was the last week of her summer vacation. Hikaru and Fuu were back at school, but she was going to spend time with Clef. It was so difficult to see him much during term time, now that she was in her last year of school and had exams looming before her, so she was determined to enjoy this.

She appeared somewhere in the corridor near the third landing platform, where she had agreed to meet Clef. If her watch was right, she was just in time. Taking the last few paces at a jog, she turned the corner and nearly ran into someone wearing the blue uniform of a castle messenger.

“I’m so sorry.” Umi instinctively bowed.

“It was a silly place to stand,” he apologised. “You must be the Lady Knight of Water?”

“Yes.”

“I have been asked to relay the Guru’s apologies. He says to tell you that he had forgotten the Council meeting was bound to run overtime this afternoon, and that he will be with you as soon as he may, but if you would like to go on without him, the transport is ready and will take you on.”

Umi sighed. Of course, he was still in a Council meeting just when he was meant to be meeting her. “I’ll go on without him,” she said.

The messenger led her out to the platform where one of the round winged disk contraptions waited for her. Umi let out an even bigger sigh. She’d been hoping for something a little less… _that_.

Throwing her bag in first, Umi scrambled up the side of it and sat down in the centre, as far from the sides as she could get. These things had started to make her nervous especially after she realised how flimsy the spells could be under the wrong conditions.

The shielding spell woke and snapped shut above her, and the thing lifted off with only the tiniest wobble as it moved out of the shelter of the platform and the wind caught it. While the transport didn’t surprise her that much, she was a little irritated she taking it alone. It meant she had no one to distract her from the thought of the damn thing plummeting to the ground, on top of being grumpy at not seeing Clef yet, so her thoughts weren’t as positive as they could be.

Nevertheless, she found the courage to sit up straighter so she could catch glimpses of the land beneath her. She and the other knights had discussed trying to do a long journey through Cephiro sometime, the sort where they could actually see everything whole and put back together. Only every long holiday break they had seemed to be broken up with family visits, or they were all free at different times, or sticking around the castle because their friends were still very much working. The rebuilding of the land and political system was taking a great deal of time and energy; from what Clef had told her, Cephiro wasn’t near done expanding yet, but each new area had to be stabilised and have people put in charge of it before anyone could live there.

So maybe it wasn’t so bad waiting a little longer before they went out to see it all - it wasn’t all there yet. But she did want to see more of it.

Umi had just assumed that since it was the centre of government, that all of the officials and politicians lived in the castle on one of the many levels. (There were _a lot_ of levels.) She ran into all of them frequently enough that she never guessed otherwise, so when Clef invited her to spend most of a week at his personal residence, she was more surprised that he wasn’t a permanent fixture in the castle and actually had a life outside of work than the fact he’d just agreed to spend that time alone with her unchaperoned. He’d never mentioned a house elsewhere, in the years she’d known him - or if he had, she hadn’t been paying attention. Whenever she couldn’t find him in the castle she’d just assumed he was out… fixing something.

Apparently not. She’d stared at him. “But you’re always here when we visit. When do you even go to this house, one day a year?”

“I spend about half the week there, generally. Have done for a couple of years. There’re enough people living there now to look after it the rest of the time.” He frowned. “I can’t believe I never mentioned it. I know I complained about Aveo making me go over the household accounts last month while I was trying to get the Academy review done.”

“...Huh. That’s someone from your household? I thought you were talking about the Castle accounts, or something. But I guess no one thinking clearly would let you near them, I’ve seen you trying to understand the budget.” He glared at her for that, but it was true, he’d been asking her what it meant in a desperate moment there. At least he hadn’t been hiding it from her, she’d just… missed it.

Probably because she was concentrating on trying not to stare at him, at least this last half a year. “But honestly, Clef, I was just here for two whole weeks and I saw you every day but one! But you want me to believe you spend half the week away from the castle?”

“Well, I had a lot of work at the castle to catch up on!” he had said, defensively. “I guess I try to be around when you - you _three_ \- are, otherwise I’d never see you.”

Umi had blinked at him for a moment, not quite comprehending the fact he had just admitted to he’d spending the past few years reorganising his schedule so he was almost always at the castle during their visits. (Which had to be a lot of schedule changes given how strangely the Cephiran calendar lined up with the Earth one.)

Since then, she’d been horribly curious about Clef’s house and who these people were who lived there the rest of the time and looked after the place. Her curiosity was about the only thing keeping Umi from turning the transport around right now. Especially when a particularly strong gust of wind caused the thing to tilt sideways, tumbling her closer to the edge than she would like.

“This better be worth it, Clef,” she muttered, gripping her bag tightly. She needed to learn how to do that translocation spell at some point so she could miss out weird transportation like this next time she had to travel across Cephiro.

It seemed like an eternity before a loud chime sounded, signalling the disk’s descent from the sky.

Umi leaned a bit closer to the edge as the disk glided over a thick forest, the bottom starting to brush against the treetops slightly just before they ended. There was a series of gardens next, as she got closer and closer to the ground. The mansion beyond them could only be Clef's house. There were no other buildings for miles that she could see, and the disk was landing, sliding to a halt on the gravel walk at the base of a set of stone steps.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but this … edifice most certainly was not it.

Clutching her bag, Umi climbed the steps toward the doors. Unlike the metal-work doors she'd become accustomed to in the castle, these were carved wood. They had a similar shape to the others she'd seen in Cephiro, but the only decorations were the scrollwork about the frosted glass of the inset windows. The only metal features were the handle and the long hinges on each side. Umi stretched out to grasp the handle as she made it to the door, but it swing away from her as the door was opened from the inside.

A friendly-faced plump woman, wearing robes a great deal more utilitarian than Clef’s, greeted her with a smile. "You're earlier than we expected,"

"Am I?" Umi blinked.

"You’re Umi, yes? The Magic Knight of Water?"

"Yes."

"Then, yes, you're a little earlier than we were told to expect you, but not much. I expect Master Clef was planning on Fyula’s pace, not that thing! Your room has been ready for a while, and there’s stew if you’re hungry," the woman said as she took Umi's bag from her. "I can always have something else prepared, but it’ll take a little longer.”

Umi was only half listening as she followed her in. She was distracted by the entrance hall; the same coiling designs from the door were etched into the beams that arched overhead and murals of garden scenes and mythological tales were painted over the high walls. The animals and plants were different, but they were amazingly similar to ones she had seen in buildings from the European ‘renaissance’ period.

Perhaps this wasn't the first time the Magic Knights had been called from Earth. Maybe there had been others throughout both their worlds' histories...

She was startled out of her thoughts by a soft chuckle behind her.

"I forget how much of a sight this place can be.” The woman smiled fondly. "I’ve been here too long to notice it myself. It's a bit old-fashioned, but then again, Master Clef isn't nearly so young as he looks, and he always has been rather sentimental."

"It's beautiful," Umi declared. She couldn’t believe this place was Clef’s home, that he was responsible for the bird-filled skies painted on the ceiling between the beams.

"He'll be pleased you like it,” the woman said, leading her up the stairs and onto a landing.

Every wall surface had something covering it, whether a mural or a portrait or other framed painting. Umi couldn't help but stop and stare, only to be moved on down the long corridor when her guide chuckled. Once she was settled in, she was definitely going to have to explore this place.

When they reached the far end, the woman opened the door on the right and waved Umi in ahead of her.

Despite the grandeur of the corridor, Umi hadn’t thought about what that might mean for the bedroom she was now presented with, but even in her wildest fantasies she would never have come up with something like this. It was bigger than the one she shared with the other girls in the castle. Soft curtains of silver and white were pulled away from the windows to allow the sunlight to pour in on a large bed with covers embroidered in silvers, whites, and blues. Two huge silver gilt wardrobes took up most of the space on the opposite wall, either side of a dressing table.

She would have been happy in a tiny little room with a small bed and worn quilt, so long as she was able to spend some time with Clef, but this was amazing. She definitely wasn’t going to complain about spending a few nights in here.

"Wow," Umi breathed.

"My name's Aveo, by the way. I’m Master Clef’s seneschal, I look after things when he’s not here. And when he is too, mostly,” the woman said, setting Umi’s bag on the bed and turning to leave. “If you need anything, just call."

Umi turned around. “Aveo?"

"Yes, Lady Umi?"

Umi was startled by the title. She’d expected some level of formality from people working for (Or was it just with?) Clef given she was there as his guest, but just the normal polite greetings, not to be addressed as if she were the lady of the house.

She pushed the thought back and smiled. "You said something about stew?"

.*.*.*.

Once she was well fed, Umi left the mildly cavernous kitchen and traced the path back up to her bedroom to get settled.

Her window was actually a set of doors leading out onto a balcony which overlooked an expansive garden. She peered out and saw a few people walking about on the paths. At least one stopped to look up at her, looking surprised someone was in the room. Half tempted to wave and startle them further, she laughed and stepped back into the room.

One side of the bed was a little door. Inside she found the Cephiran equivalent of an en-suite bathroom, with the funny squat toilet, a washbasin, and the strange sort of shower contraption she was finally starting to get used to now that their room in the castle had one as well.

When she went back to look in one of the wardrobes, Umi found it far from empty. She had expected maybe a dressing gown and a set of pyjamas or something, like the ones provided in their room in the castle. She _hadn’t_ been expecting to find actual clothing, much less an array of beautiful dresses. There were so many amazing shades of blue, plus a few of pink, and gold, and one of white which shone silver at the hems. She ran her hands over them, feeling the smooth silk and satin-like fabrics slide under her fingers like water.

Umi pulled one out with its hanger - she’d learnt the hard way that you didn’t take them off unless you wanted to spend ages trying to fit the pieces back together - and held it up to herself in the mirror. It was light blue, accented with silver thread and sapphire-like stones. She pulled down another, which was almost white, with violet sashes.

A short knock at the door interrupted her investigation. Umi looked about, startled. She guiltily hung the dresses back in the wardrobe, but if she wasn't supposed to be in the wardrobes, why would they have been unlocked?

"Come in," she called.

A girl stood in the doorway. She looked to be around twelve or thirteen years old, though it was just as likely she was five times older than that, given how no one Umi had met in Cephiro yet seemed to be the age she expected.

"Sorry, my Lady,” she said. "Master Clef has sent word expressing his apologies. He says the meeting is running even further over-time, so he will be in very late tonight."

“Sorry, I know it’s probably a silly question,” Umi asked, waving a hand at the dresses in the wardrobe. ”But whose clothes are these?"

The girl looked confusedly between Umi and the wardrobe. “Why they’re _yours_ , my Lady.”

Before she could ask for clarification, the girl bowed and disappeared out the door. Umi looked over at the drapes of silks and brocades in the wardrobe in utter confusion.

Clef had a lot of explaining to do when he returned. She pushed the thought out of her head and opened the bag she had brought with her, with its normal comfortable clothes from home.

She always put clothes away when she went on holiday; trying to find anything in a small bag ended badly after just a few days. Things might start neatly folded, but by day three it was nothing but a tangled and crumpled mess. She hung up what she could in the second wardrobe, which was half built-in drawers, pausing only momentarily to be distracted by the sets of shoes stored in the base of that one.

Definitely a lot of explaining.

The more drawers she opened, the more things she found. She put her two nightgowns from home away in a drawer that already had three Cephiran nightgowns in it. She did find the dressing gown she had expected, tucked into a corner of the second wardrobe. Looking about the rest of the room there was also at least one set of slippers, a jug for water and two glasses, and a basket of snacks which included an assortment of the savoury biscuits she liked. Picking up one of the little, folded paper packets, she walked back over to the bed and sat down.

Umi was used to visits to Cephiro being sort of loud and silly. Hikaru was usually bouncing in and out of the bedroom if she was around, and Caldina would usually descend upon them all at some point with whatever the current gossip was. There wasn’t ever that much time to think about anything else.

Now that she was unpacked with nothing to do until her host turned up, the quiet was beginning to feel more than a little oppressive.

Clutching the biscuits a bit too firmly, she looked around the room again. It was lovely, but strange. It didn’t feel like her room on earth with its small bed, posters on the walls, and all of the things she had collected over the past seventeen years. Nor did it feel like her room in the castle with its beautiful but basic furnishings and the bits and bobs they had amassed over the past few years of infrequent visits. They had a collection of comfort reads from Earth which they kept on a small bookcase near the beds. Perhaps she should have stopped to pick a few up on her way out, rather than the silly romance novels she’d brought with her.

This room felt almost as if it were trying too hard to be perfect for her.

Umi wiped her eyes and shook her head. She was being silly. She was going to have a nice time. Clef would definitely be home tomorrow, and she wasn’t really alone. There were other people in the house.

.*.*.*.

Clef was in a foul mood when he walked into the foyer of his house. Of all the meetings to run over-time this week, it had to be that dratted Council meeting, which had, _of course_ , degenerate into an argument. He struggled to keep his temper under control in some of the more everyday political debates, but this was his life they were arguing, and he was already tired of it.

He was a bundle of raw nerves when Aveo appeared around the corner, making him jump.

“Do you want me to bring some tea up for you?” she asked.

“Yes, please.” He usually drank almost a full pot of one of the calming blends before he could settle once he got home any week. He paused on the stairs and looked back at his seneschal. “Has…”

“Lady Umi arrived safely. I believe she’s sleeping now, no one has seen her since she retired to her room after supper.”

Clef nodded and walked slowly up the stairs. He glanced down the end of the corridor to the shut door. The bedroom was the mirror of his own, it would be the room his partner would have if he had one. Why had Aveo insisted on putting Umi in that room in particular?

His feet had carried him the length of the floor between the stairs and her room before he realised it. His hand was nearly raised to knock when he caught himself, hissed in a breath, and retreated back down to the safety of his study at the other end of the corridor. He shut the study door firmly behind himself and lingered there momentarily, thinking of casting a shield so he would feel safer. (Safe from what?) But that would keep out the tea he’d requested, and it was silly anyway.

Just as ridiculous as the suggestion that got her here.

They had been at the castle. Everyone was seeing all three girls off after they had spent nearly two full weeks in Cephiro as part of their summer holidays. He and Umi were discussing the fact she wanted to see more of Cephiro on their next long visit during her ‘winter break’. They’d not made it very far out of the central grounds and land around the castle in the few years they’d been travelling back and forth. With the reformation and all, there hadn’t been that much to see at first; the land was only just beginning to look again how she should.

Why he had gone and suggested that if Umi wanted to, she should come out and stay with him, he had no idea.

It was even more perplexing that Umi agreed it sounded like fun and invited herself to stay for the week after that one.

“Don’t you go back to school?” he had asked. The girls had been discussing homework and going back to their lessons all week. That was why they were going home then, so they had a week of finishing homework before they resumed their learning, or so he’d thought.

“Oh, no. Fuu and Hikaru go back sooner than me.” She had smiled. “I still have _two_ weeks.” A mischievous spark glinted in her eyes as she continued to explain she was actually spending time with her parents that week but was perfectly free to visit the one following.

Why he agreed that his offer was sincerely meant, he had no idea. It was terribly stupid of him. Looking back, he could only hope she hadn’t thought he was propositioning her; inviting someone to your home so you could show them ‘more of Cephiro’ sounded a lot more dubious than he had intended.

When he’d made it home that week, still feeling utterly perplexed (and somewhat embarrassed) by his agreement, he ended up with Aveo laughing at him as he explained he’d accidentally gotten himself committed to hosting a guest. Not just any guest, but one that she’d already heard far too much about, probably. He tried his best not to imagine what exactly she thought about it.

Especially when she knew his various expenditures over the past few months. He’d had to stop wandering out to the village as much on market days, he’d been spending far too much time and money with the drapers.

Pulling his coronet off, Clef walked over to his desk and dropped into his chair. He threw the headdress onto his mountain of paperwork, where it landed with a dull thud, and rubbed his face with both hands. This was stupid! He was centuries old, not a randy adolescent with only one thing on his mind, and yet he was finding himself more and more easily distracted whenever he was in the same room as Umi.

Some little devious part of his brain suggested that _actually_ propositioning her this week might end well for the both of them, but he was saved from that train of thought by the door to his study opening and Aveo returned with a tray of tea and some little sweet cakes.

“There’s not much left over from supper,” Aveo said. “But you can probably find something if you’re still hungry later”

Clef’s hands trembled slightly as he reached for the teapot, but not enough that he spilt the tea as he poured it. He lifted the cup to his lips, trying not to think about what Aveo was thinking, smirking at him like that.

“Are you going to put your name down on the kitchen rota, or do you think you’ll be too busy?” she asked.

“Yes, I can do tomorrow, probably,” Clef tried to ignore the suggestion he’d use Umi as an excuse to shirk his responsibilities. He’d not been home as much as he should have been the last few weeks, especially while the Knights had been at the castle, so he’d been missing some of his obligations at home. He furrowed his brow as he tried to work out what else he needed to do besides attending the function at Ouran’s in two days, but that was the only thing he could remember that should affect his evenings. “I could pick up another day if anyone wants me to.”

“I doubt anyone will argue.”

His guest might, he found himself thinking. She would probably be annoyed if he started picking up work while he was supposed to be entertaining her.

He could only imagine what his face looked like. Aveo placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, “Everything alright?”

“Not really, no.” He shook his head and shoved his hair back from his face as he looked up at Aveo. “Why did I invite her to stay here?”

“Because you like her.” She smiled and gave him another pat on the shoulder before walking away. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”

“Thank you, Aveo.”

“Don’t worry about it. But please get some rest, you’ve been working too hard again.”

He nodded absently and shifted some of his papers to find the small collection of notes he’d been working on the last time he was at home. Flipping through it, he worked out which text he meant to look at next.

Originally, it hadn’t seemed so pressing, sorting out the laws that still governed the posts of the Master Mage, the High Priest, and the Head Judge. There had been the more urgent problem of rebuilding the land, and resettling people. It had taken at least a year to get the land stable around the castle. They were still working to keep it stable further out in the bordering provinces, like the one centred on this very house which he watched over and protected.

Sometime in the middle of that, probably when he started the task of hosting representatives from the neighbouring lands or visiting them for trade meetings, he’d chosen to return to an adult size.

Being taller was nice in some ways, like being less disconcerting to their various guests, but it was complicated in others. He’d forgotten how distracting a pretty face could be. Especially one belonging to someone he cared for. It had helped at first that he still saw the Knights as children. Though they had aged emotionally after the terrible deed they were summoned to do, they were still very young when they returned to Cephiro.

The change had been so gradual that Clef couldn’t be sure when their relationship went from friends to something more... _potent_. He might have wilfully ignored it if one argument hadn’t ended with Umi slamming him back against a wall and kissing him, while he held onto her for dear life.

Everything snapped into sharp focus then. The laws he’d been ignoring, the truth of his feelings, and the complications of the two of them combined.

That night, he’d started work. But even months later there was still _so much_ he needed to do to get the changes through. Despite the progress he’d made tonight, multiple debates and hearings stood in front of him, and until they had been negotiated, if he wanted to remain within the law he needed to ignore any feelings he had and keep focused on his post.

There was still a part of him that wanted to just renounce his title and let someone else take up the mantle. He could still work on changing the set-up from the outside, but he knew it would be easier if he were still Guru, the Master Mage.

.*.*.*.

Umi had been in bed for a few hours when she finally gave up on sleeping. It was just too quiet. In Tokyo, she had all sorts of city noises she was used to sleeping through. Then here in Cephiro, she had always shared a room with Hikaru and Fuu; if there was no other sound, at least she could hear them breathing in the dark beside her. But here, in this house, the silence was overpowering.

Slipping out from under the covers, she made her way over to the door in the dark. There had to be something she could do to tire herself out so that the silence wouldn't be so deafening.

At the very least, she could make her way down to the kitchen and make herself a drink. The kettle had looked normal enough if she could work out which teas wouldn’t wake her up even more.

She almost changed her mind once she was out in the corridor. Umi had never been one to be afraid of the dark (at least she’d never admit to it), but the heavy shroud of blackness was almost enough to put anyone off from exploring. Not even the stars shone in the window on the end wall beside her room.

How badly did she want to leave her room?

That question rolled over in her head a good hundred times before she noticed the tiny pool of light down at the other end of the corridor toward the top of the main staircase. Umi quietly approached the warm glow. When she got closer, she realised that not only was there light, but there was also a familiar muttering and rustle of papers.

"I was beginning to wonder if you would join me here at all,” she said, walking into the room.

"I'm sorry," Clef apologised, the dark circles under his eyes stark against his pale skin. "I didn't realise it would take so long today. It was supposed to just be a brief meeting, just ratification of some changes and an informal discussion. Unfortunately, it turned into a formal debate, and… I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. Your door was already shut and the light off when I came upstairs, so I didn’t want to intrude.”

“You still could have knocked,” Umi offered.

He raised an eyebrow. “Nothing good comes of knocking on doors in the middle of the night.”

“Hey! I knock on your door at night sometimes.”

“Coming to my study or my office to ask for a sleeping potion is one thing.” He waved his hand. “Visiting someone in their bedroom is another thing entirely.”

“Point taken.” Umi flopped into an empty chair. “How was your day, anyway?”

Clef groaned. “You don’t want to know.”

“That bad, huh?”

He shook his head and ran his hands through his hair, then looked over at her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to meet you.”

That was the third apology. Either he was really tired, or really sincere. Or both. “Don’t worry about it.” Umi waved a hand at him. “I know you have to work.”

“I would rather have been here.”

“Of course you would have. This place isn’t full of stuffy politicians!”

“No, it’s not.” He sighed. “But unfortunately, I’m not done with politicians for the week.”

Umi frowned at him. “But you already had this fortnight’s Council meeting, didn’t you?”

“My presence has been requested at Ouran’s ball the day after tomorrow.” He gave her a half smile. “I’m allowed to bring someone with me. I thought, as you aren’t doing anything, maybe you’d like to come with me?”

That was a surprise. He wasn't much of one for balls; too noisy and too many people or so he'd complained last time he couldn’t avoid one. "Is that why there are two wardrobes full of ball gowns in my room?"

"They are not all ball gowns," he insisted with an air of annoyance.

"You sure?" she prodded, not sure why she had the desire to wind him up tonight. "All… twenty of them that I pulled out looked very much like ball gowns to me."

"They are clothes befitting your rank," he stated, coolly, not taking the bait. “And there are not twenty of them.”

“Okay, fifteen.”

“There are only twelve!”

“Just twelve?” Umi teased.

“Do you want there to be more?”

She shook her head. Twelve was more than enough. “I suppose it's a good thing I have something to wear to this surprise ball of yours."

"It's not my ball. It's Ouran's, and I did not want to attend."

"Who twisted your arm, then?"

He shook his head and went back to shuffling through paperwork with even more concentration. Getting up, she stepped closer to him.

"You've already had your meeting for the fortnight, what’re you fussing over now?"

Umi bent over the notes and texts that were piled on his desk. Though her reading comprehension of the script was questionable, she was pretty well able to work out two very familiar words: Guru and Master Mage. Between the way his title was scattered about his notes and the two heavy law books she’d seen on more than one occasion, Umi had a pretty good idea what he was researching.

"Clef? Are you still…” Umi picked up the top most sheets. She had thought he must have done something about it by now. He’d had months. Did it really take that long to repeal one badly thought out law?

“Yes, I’m still trying to draft another repeal.” He snatched the papers out of her hand laid them back on the desk, before sweeping her away from his research with a gesture toward the sitting area. "Come, sit."

Umi sat down on the settee. Clef sat down a little distance from her. Umi clutched the fabric of her nightgown and chewed her lip as she tried to think of something to say. She wanted to ask why he was drafting a second repeal. Had something happened to the first? Was it really going that badly?

Between them, she found his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, turning to look at him. The corners of his lips turned up a sad smile.

Somewhere in the house, a clock chimed out the late hour.

"Why aren't you in bed?" Clef asked.

"I was, but I couldn't sleep.” He didn't need to know that her room was too quiet; he'd been to a lot of trouble to make it perfect. "I could ask the same of you, you know."

"I had more pressing matters on my mind than sleeping."

Umi bit her lip and blushed, thinking of other things that could be twisted to mean than just work. He paused, too, and there was something about his gaze that made an excited tremor run through her.

Then he was standing, and pulling her upright. "Come. It's time we get you to bed."

“Yours or mine?” she asked before she thought better of it.

"Umi," he warned.

“That wasn’t an answer.” She grinned at the blush that spread across his face. It was so much easier to get him flustered lately. She took a bit too much joy in it sometimes, but she also liked the fact she could get to him that way.

“You are going to your room, and I will be going to mine,” he said, giving her a gentle shove toward the door.

Umi giggled and let him guide her out the door. She told him he was no fun as they walked slowly back toward her room. They stopped at the door and she turned back around to him.

“Sure you don’t want to change your mind?” she said, not entirely sure she didn’t mean it.

A warm hand threaded through her hair, and Clef leaned slowly in. His lips brushed gently against hers, just once. She tugged him closer, pressing her body against his, but he pulled away even as her lips opened to his.

"Good _night_ ," he insisted, voice shaking slightly.

Umi watched him walk away from her, back through the shadows and shut himself away in the room across from hers.

 


	2. In which Umi sees more of Clef's house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to Down for being my beta on this fic. She's been helping me make it so much better with every read through.

The late morning sunlight was streaming unhindered through the windows of Umi's newest Cephiran bedroom. Hadn't she closed those curtains last night? She muttered an angry curse before burying her face back in her pillow and pulling the covers back over her head, trying to get back to sleep.

It was a good fifteen minutes before she finally gave up on the idea. She slowly sat up and stretched her tired muscles with a heavy sigh. Perhaps she shouldn't have stayed up so late.

She was contemplating what she might do that day when her eyes noticed a small tray sitting on the little table under the far window. Throwing back the covers, she practically jumped out of bed to investigate. There was a hot pot of tea, an assortment of fruit, and a little metal dome. Lifting the cover revealed a steaming bowl of the dish rather like porridge that she'd grown rather fond of over the past few years.

After polishing off everything on the tray, Umi dressed in a short, light-pink sundress from the carefully chosen selection of cute summer clothing she’d brought with her. She managed to tame her hair well enough with just her fingers to twist it into a loose plait down her back, tying it off with a ribbon that matched the dress before going in search of Clef.

Her first thought was to check the study she'd found him in the night before, but that wasn't where he had disappeared last night after their kiss. Clef had shut himself in the room directly across from hers. She knocked lightly on the door, but received no answer.

Carefully, she turned the handle and peered into the room. "Clef?" she asked, quietly.

Inside it was dark, the curtains still tightly drawn; only the crack of light from the door illuminated the figure curled tightly under the duvet. If it weren't for the hair poking out of the end of the bundle she wouldn't have been at all sure it was Clef.

She was half tempted to wake him up. He'd promised to take time off and spend it with her, this week. But she watched the blankets rise and fall, and remembered the circles she so often saw under his eyes.

No, she would let him sleep as long as he needed to.

Stepping back into the corridor, she shut the door behind her and headed off toward the study she'd found Clef in the night before. Perhaps she could attempt to figure out one or two of the pages he was studying before she could be ushered out of the room again. Why he insisted on doing this on his own, she didn't understand. She might not be able to read the texts, but she could recognise words if he wrote them down for her. She could help him find the sections he needed to read, at the very least.

In the daylight, she could admire the beauty of the beast of a thing that called itself a desk. It looked more like a medium sized dining table than a desk, really. It had a solid mahogany-like top that was nearly as thick as her hand was long, intricately carved around the sides with the same floral designs she'd seen in the house's other woodwork. The heavy top was held up by four equally magnificent carved griffins. Their powerful backs and wings struggled under the weight of the books and papers covering every inch of the surface.

Of course his desk at home would be just as buried as his one at the castle.

Umi picked up the nearest heavy book to thumb through it and see if she could find anything that related to the laws surrounding Clef's post. What she didn’t expect when she lifted it was the tink of china and the uncomfortably familiar sound of liquid spilling onto the floor.

Umi dropped the book and rushed round the desk to see what damage she'd caused. A cup of tea had fallen over, and from the look of the puddle it had been nearly full. Some of its contents had safely made it to the floor, but unhappily the majority had begun to seep through the lowest levels of the piles of parchment.

Helplessly, Umi scanned the room for a towel, a cloth, anything to clean up the mess, but there was nothing to be had. Cursing under her breath, she tried to figure out a plan before his notes were ruined.

Tea was mostly water, right?

Perhaps she could control it?

Teeth clenched tightly on her lower lip, she concentrated on the troublesome liquid. It was creeping its way farther into the mess. If she didn't do something soon, Clef would be beyond furious.

Pushing aside that thought she felt for the edges of the puddle and slowly began to pull it back towards herself. It was slow going at first; she was afraid of pulling any running ink off the pages as well, but it was her magic and it knew what she wanted to do. The tea pulled itself out of the parchment carefully, perhaps leaving a shadow of a tea stain behind, but the words were still as legible as they had been.

Growing more certain that no harm was coming to the papers, Umi pulled a little faster - perhaps too fast. The magic pulled the last drops loose of the final sheet with a strong pop and a rush of air, sending the salvaged leaves of paper across the floor.

Umi glanced between the dancing orb of tea in her palm and the new mess she'd just created. She needed to put the tea back in it's still overturned cup, so she could tidy up the papers, but how was she supposed to turn the cup over without dropping the tea?

.*.*.*.

Clef woke slowly, stretched and rolled over. Mornings at home were always better than mornings at the castle; no one rushing into his rooms or knocking on his doors with an urgent question at an unsociable hour. He could stay in bed until he was properly awake and ready to face the day, rather than dragging himself out and spending the day gulping down tea just to feel like a person instead of a ball of grumpiness.

The duvet was warm and soft. He snuggled further into it, trying to get back to sleep for a little while longer, but that serenity was short-lived.

He noticed the disturbance of the shielding about his study first, but thought nothing of it. Aveo often left him paperwork in the morning. It wasn't until he felt the other spell that he got up; no one should be casting spells in his rooms. They shouldn’t even be able to!

Stumbling out of his bedroom in his nightclothes, Clef hurried down the corridor to see what was the matter.

He found Umi standing in the middle of his study, holding a rotating sphere of what appeared to be tea. Most of the paper from his desk now littered the floor around her.

"I leave you alone for five minutes," he sighed. At least this explained why someone was able to cast magic in the centre of a set of wards designed to prevent exactly that - he had a hard time convincing his magic to distrust Umi.

Startled, she lost control of the spell and let go. The tea splashed over her feet and the floor, saturating a few edges of the nearest documents.

"Well, I'm not the one who left the tea on the desk," she snapped.

"It's my desk." He waved impatiently at the now empty surface. "I can leave my tea on it if I like."

"To booby trap it so no one can help you?"

"I don't need any help with this, Umi." He stooped down to pick up the papers scattered about the floor. It was difficult enough doing the research without someone rearranging his notes; it was going to take quite some time to reorganise this chaos after that little trick.

She crouched down beside him, gathering other bits of parchment. "I want to help. It concerns me too, you know."

He flinched. "I know."

"Then why won't you let me help you?"

It wasn't that he was _trying_ to shut her out, he just didn't know how to include her in all of this. There was so much reading to do, and she still only had a basic grasp of some words. However they went about it, they couldn’t work out how to teach her to read Cephiran. No matter how he tried to sound words out, the syllables weren't translating the way they needed to. She needed to actually learn the language first, and with the translation spell in the way, that was next to impossible.

They'd tried talking about what he was reading, but that only managed to agitate him. The whole thing was stupid; the more he looked, the less of a purpose he could see to any of these laws - let alone there being three separate injunctions layered on each other, getting stricter and stricter. At the same time he couldn't leave any stone unturned, in case someone found something they could use to challenge him in the hearings, which were bound to be extensive and argumentative. He wanted the repeal bills to be as watertight as he could make them, or it was going to be a matter of years before they went through.

...He didn’t think Umi’s patience was going to last years. (He wasn’t convinced his resolve was going to last the _week_.)

Sharing the detail would only depress her too, and that wasn’t going to help either of them. Clef shook his head to both end the conversation and to push the whole mess out of his mind. He glanced over at the window and then back at Umi.

"It's a nice day," he said quietly. "I could take you around the gardens, if you'd like?"

He tried to ignore the way Umi forced a smile when she accepted the invitation. They both knew how this conversation went, it was better to just leave the arguing alone for now. It didn't solve anything.

She sighed and looked down at her wet legs.

"Why don't you go get dressed," she suggested. "I'll clean this up and meet you downstairs?

.*.*.*.

Umi looked at the mess she'd made. Carefully stepping over the papers, she tiptoed her way between them to the overturned cup and put it right side up. With a bit more control, and little more concentration, she slowly pulled every last drop of the tea out of the carpet. Condensing it into a small sphere that she could hold in her palms, she let it trickle back into the cup.

Placing the cup safely on the other side of the room, so she couldn't knock the damn thing over again, she started gathering up the papers on the floor.Having absolutely no idea how to sort them, Umi just stacked them all as neatly as she could into a few piles to give him space to resort them. He would probably grumble about it later, but he wouldn't be that angry with her for an accident. He never was. He'd just be a bit annoyed.

Once everything was returned to more or less where it had been - except the traitorous teacup - Umi jogged back to her room and washed the tea off her legs, glancing in the mirror before dashing out again.

Her hair was already trying it's best to escape her messy plait, but she wasn't too bothered. It was out of her face, and that was good enough. Her dress, on the other hand was trying to drop a bit lower than she wanted without anything underneath the top of it. She untied the drawstring - which doubled as the straps - and pulled it a little more tightly, bringing the neckline up to a more comfortable level. It also meant the hem was nearly two inches higher, but she felt really cute in it, and hoped Clef thought so too.

Shoving her feet into her shoes, Umi went back out to find Clef downstairs, but his door opened moments after hers.

Clef stepped out wearing perhaps the simplest robes she'd ever seen him in. Pale trousers and shirt, and a long overcoat in a light-weight navy blue material with silver thread glinting just at the edges, cinched at the waist with a wide silver belt. It wasn't often he wore anything that showed so much of his lean shape. Without his heavy mantle, and sweep robes, he looked practically naked. It was a little distracting.

The mantle wasn't the only decoration missing. The only jewellery Clef wore was his ring and a pair of silver ear cuffs. His hair hung freely about his face, and Umi just wanted to run her fingers through it.

"No coronet?" she asked.

"Ah, no." Clef touched his forehead. "I'm just the Warden here." He paused, and smiled. "The Guru isn't always as…approachable?"

Umi grinned at him. "Is the Warden less crabby, then?"

His lips pinched together and he gave her an indescribable look which only made her laugh at him, but she went quiet when he held out a hand.

"Shall we?" he asked.

Staring down at his hand, then back up at him, Umi couldn’t work out what exactly was strange about this entire situation apart from _all of it_. Clef being dressed down. He was actually offering her his hand to hold. But the fact she was actually staying at his house was among the top contenders for the weirdest part!

The bemusement didn't prevent her from taking his hand and letting him lead her down the stairs.

.*.*.*.

Clef knew he shouldn't have offered her his hand, but still he found himself weaving his fingers between hers as he led her through the corridors and out into the sunshine. The smile on her face was more than enough to set his heart racing. The effect was compounded by her leaning into his arm. The warm touch of her body against his was…

His breath caught in his throat at the sudden charge of electricity which coursed through him. He tried to untangle their fingers before the surge of power jumped between them, but failed when Umi kept hold of him.

The spark that leapt from his skin to hers sent a tingling shiver up his spine, and he could only imagine what it had done to Umi. She instantly dropped his hand and took a step away from him, looking down at her palm in more bewildered fascination than fear before glancing back at him.

"Clef?"

That had been happening more and more lately, but he didn't even know where to start explaining why. It was too embarrassing; it had been so long since anyone else got that sort of rise out of him. He didn't know what she would do if she realised just what it meant.

Well, he had an idea, but he wasn't going to entertain that notion. Clasping his hand firmly behind his back, to avoid the temptation of reaching out to her, Clef walked on.

He was a good few paces down the path before Umi jogged to catch up.

"Hey!" she said. "What was that?"

He shook his head.

"That's not an answer, Clef." Umi grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop, worry etched across her face.

"It's - um -" he stammered, glancing down at the hand on his arm. He could shake off her grasp; he could walk away; but she would definitely not ignore the pulse building beneath her palm.

Umi let go and dropped her arms to her sides, hands tightening into fists. "You're not ill, are you?"

"No?" Oh, bother. He wasn't getting away without explaining at least some of it.

Taking a deep breath he tried to gather his thoughts. The basics were simple, and he could just… gloss over the reason for it. Concentrating very hard on keeping his power tethered where it belonged, he reached forward and picked up her hands. "It's a complementary magic reaction."

Umi's fingers uncurled until her palms rested flat against his. He let a small flicker travel between them, trying not to allow the cool shimmer of her magic draw any more of his own up with it.

Both of them stared down at their hands for a moment. Umi's breath hitched and her magic surged across his palms and up his wrists, they both gasped and stepped back. Clef swallowed and took long steady breaths to ease the shakes running through him. A bright flush had spread over Umi's cheeks; he wondered if she might have some idea of the why of her own magic's reaction.

Running a hand through his hair, he made himself smile at her. “See? It’s just a bit of overspill of magic.” Once again gripping his right wrist tightly with his left, Clef started back down the path.

Umi followed him silently for a few paces before touching his arm with a trembling hand. "I don't mind."

Clef stopped and looked at her.

Shoulders squared, cheeks even redder than before, Umi looked straight at him. "I _like_ holding your hand, Clef. If that's going to happen every time, then I guess I'll just have to get used to it." She thrust her hand out to him, her gesture more like a challenge than an invitation. "As I said, I don't mind."

Perhaps he should have argued, or - better yet - refused, but in the end he did exactly what he wanted to and took her hand back in his. The power buzzed gently between them, and he made a conscious decision to let himself enjoy the touch of her skin and the tingling in his fingertips.

Umi laced her fingers through his as they walked on. The expression on her face could be described as smug, practically victorious. She held on tightly, perhaps afraid he'd pull away again.

Their walk took them through the meadow, where Umi quizzed him on the names of the flowers she didn't know, and up the hill into the uinka orchard. Umi paused at the edge of the tree line to look back over the house and the gardens. She leaned back against the trunk of a tree.

"It's beautiful here."

"I'm glad you like it," Clef said, looking out across the fields in the distance. "I should take you into the village this week. Market day is in three days time."

"I'd like that."

She smiled brightly, and he couldn't help the grin spreading on his own face, or the laugh that burbled up when he remembered why he hadn't been to the market the past few weeks. Aveo had every right to cut off his credit, but it still was a bit… embarrassing.

Umi turned to him with a quizzical look. "What is it?"

"I'll tell you later," he said. "We should probably head back now."

They had walked quite a way. It was getting late, and Aveo would send someone to hunt him down and make him eat lunch soon. He didn't get away with forgetting meals here. She made sure he had ate something at least twice a day, and if he forgot too often someone would show up and glower at him. Since he'd already missed breakfast, it would be a bad idea to miss lunch.

"Should we?" Umi asked.

He took a few steps towards the house, tugging gently on her hand. "Yes. Or there won't be anything left to eat."

.*.*.*.

Umi let Clef lead her down a different path from the orchard, circling down a hill and around to the other side of the house. Letting go of her hand, Clef opened a gate and let Umi into a tidy little vegetable and herb garden. Umi stood by as Clef latched it again then took his hand once more as they continued.

At the end of the path was a small door which Clef again opened for her. Umi stepped through into the kitchen and headed right toward the little dining room where she'd eaten the evening before. Clef followed closely behind.

"Hey!" A small head poked around the corner before disappearing again. "Told you Master Clef could find himself!"

"Huh?" A wiry man leaned his chair back from the table to see them. "Guess you don't have to go looking, eh, squirt?" His face broke out into a broad smile as he waved at them. "Hey!"

"Good afternoon, Getz," Clef greeted the man over her shoulder. His hand came up to rest lightly on Umi’s waist as they walked through the doorway. "Have you met Umi?"

"No, I haven't." Getz let the front feet of his chair drop back down on the floor with a heavy thump and stood up, politely bowing to her. "I'm Getz, my Lady. Pleasure to finally meet you. Master Clef has told us quite a lot about you."

"Has he?" A soft heat prickled up the back of Umi's neck and across her cheeks as she bowed back. Clef had been talking to them about her? "Good things, I hope?"

Getz's mouth curled into a bit more of a smirk than a smile when he looked back up over at Clef and shrugged. "Mostly."

"He said you were infuriating," piped up the same small voice from earlier from a boy with sandy hair who looked to be about ten or eleven.

"Aygo!" Three adult voices scolded simultaneously; Clef, Getz, and Aveo, who was sat at the far end of the table.

"That's what you said." Aygo shrugged, unperturbed. "That the Water Knight's as infuriating as she is beautiful."

Clef frowned at him while Umi tried not to giggle. "How are you getting on with the reading I left you?" Clef asked.

"I - um - " Aygo turned back to the table and shoved a spoon full of food into his mouth, shutting up.

Clef pressed his hand firmly against Umi's lower back and guided her around the table. He pulled out a chair for her halfway down the other side, before sitting down beside her.

"I'm beautiful, huh?" she teased, poking his shoulder, and trying her very best not to blush. She knew he liked to look at her, but he'd never actually said what he thought about what he saw.

He grinned, unrepentant, and picked up a jug of fruit juice. "Don't forget infuriating."

"Glad to know I made an impression." Umi held her glass steady while he poured her a drink. She looked up at Clef, there was a hint of something lurking about the edges of that easy smile he wore. Something which made her breath catch and her heart race, the thrill of it sending a shiver down her spine. There was no fighting the warm blush which spread across her face.

Their eyes met and Clef's hand faltered, spilling a few drops of juice over the back of her hand. "Have you met, Elysion?" Clef asked, turning away with a gesture toward the girl sitting on her other side. It was only then that she realised it was the girl from last night, the one who'd popped in to give her the message.

"Hello," Elysion smiled a little shyly at her.

"Hi," Umi replied, suddenly feeling like she’d forgotten the years of practice making small talk at functions her parents dragged her to. What even counted as polite discussion in Cephiro? She had no idea. She and Clef would discuss - and, inevitably, argue - about any topic which came to mind. With her other friends conversations came and went easily, they knew each other so well by now.

Meeting new people in Cephiro - at least, people she would see again - didn’t happen very often. Most of the people at the Castle were there for their job, and didn’t sit down at dinner to start gossiping with the three weird girls from another world who kept visiting. This was different. But none of them seemed worried when she didn’t say anything more, everyone turning back to their plates.

The array of foods on the table was the sort of thing Umi had come to expect as lunch time fare in Cephiro. There were freshly made flat breads, sliced meats, slices of the local variety of cheese-fruit. Multiple salads and dishes made of the local fruits and vegetables. Everything had been started on, but there was more than enough food left for everyone at the table.

Getz passed the plate of flatbread to Clef, who gave Umi first pick. She took two and reached over for the cheese-fruit. Umi looked over at Clef as he split one of the breads down the middle to form a pocket and half-filled it with a salad of finely-diced vegetables. He then added some roasted meat and reached across the table for a small pot of some sort of sauce.

"No idea why you like that stuff," Aygo complained around another mouthful of food.

Clef dolloped a generous amount into his bread pocket and grinned at the boy. "It's tasty."

Umi bit back a snicker.

"I hope you're cooking something the rest of us like tonight," Aygo muttered.

"I was thinking of cooking something with a Chizetan flare, but if you'd rather I stuck to the basics -" Clef dropped the spoon back into the pot and lifted his sort-of-sandwich to his mouth. "I can always just boil some naitro for you."

Aygo pulled a face at that, an awful grimace complete with melodramatic gagging for good measure. The laugh Umi had been trying to hold back broke through; between that and imagining just how bland boiled naitro could be, it took her a moment to properly process what Aygo had said.

"Wait. Cooking?" Umi blinked and turned to stare at Clef. " _You're_ cooking tonight?"

"We have a rota. Tonight's my night." Clef smiled that damn smile again - the one that was doing all sorts of things to her insides - and took another bite of his food.

"I want nanba pureto," Getz laughed, ruffling Aygo's hair. "If you're doing Chizetan."

"Master Clef's food is usually really good," Elysion murmured. "But Aygo's right." She pointed at the pot in front of Clef. "That stuff burns your mouth."

Umi picked up the pot and sniffed it. The smell was something like spicy mustard or horseradish, but the consistency was more like hummus and the colour not too different. She braved a small amount on the edge of her bread.

.*.*.*.

"Careful with that," Clef warned as Umi lifted the sauce covered bit of bread to her lips. "It's a bit… _strong_."

That was probably the wrong thing to say, because Umi seemed to take it as a challenge, pausing and then dolloping just a bit more on before biting into it and looking him right in the eye the entire time. She paused a moment and then chewed thoughtfully. Her lips turned up into a smile. "Hey, it's pretty good!"

"Of course she likes it," Aygo muttered to his nearly empty plate.

"Why don't we have this at the castle?" Umi asked, spreading another spoonful across the bread before putting some meat and gia on it.

"Because it's imported," Clef explained.

"By which he means it's _expensive_ ," Aveo corrected.

"It's not _that_ expensive." Clef waved the end of his bread at her. "There have been worse expenditures on the accounts."

"Yes. All of them yours." Aveo agreed, raising an eyebrow. "Many of them recent."

"It's my money." Clef muttered, suddenly remembering just what purchases she was referring to. He'd been meaning other actual household-related expenses.

"Yeah, and how much of your money did you spend before Aveo had to cut you off?" Getz cackled, nudging Aygo with his elbow. The latter snorting as he choked back a laugh.

Clef flexed his fingers over the last bit of his bread, sorely tempted to chuck it at the pair of them. The whole household found Aveo revoking his market credit to be the most hilarious thing that had happened in months. Perhaps he had gotten carried away, but they didn't have to tease him so relentlessly.

"Cut off?" Umi sat up and looked at him with amusement written all over her face. "What did you spend so much on?"

His face was getting uncomfortably warm, and he didn’t look at her, just waved a hand in the air and hoped Umi would let it go.

It wasn’t Umi he should have been concerned about. Aveo picked up the jug of juice far too casually. "How did you like your new wardrobe, Lady Umi?"

"Clef!" Umi squeaked, her cheeks going a bright shade of pink.

He waved her off and turned back to his dratted Seneschal. "You said I needed to support the local economy!"

"There is a difference between supporting the economy and hoarding dresses that you certainly aren't going to wear.”

"Yeah." Getz sniggered. "Because one's useful and the other's just pathetic."

Clef lobbed the bit of bread at his head, missing when Getz ducked out of the way, and ended up hitting Aygo. Yelping, Aygo picked up a slice of fruit and was about to throw it back when Aveo grabbed his hand and he dropped it.

"Hey!" She snapped at Clef. "If you're going to start that, _you’ll_ be the one cleaning up!"

Getz was cackling again. Clef's fingers closed over another flatbread, but he was stopped from retaliating again by Umi's hand coming to rest lightly over his. He turned his over and let her lace their fingers together. Umi's lips had curled into an amused smirk by the time he looked up to stare at her.

"Yeah, you don't want to be making a mess," she laughed. “You know I’d help! Like this morning…”

He thought of the tea stain probably still on his study floor, and couldn’t help laughing.

"Speaking of messes," Aveo said. "Kalos seems to have lost the notes you gave her. Do you have another copy handy?"

Clef glanced at Aveo, silently cursing her for bringing that up. It was supposed to be a surprise. But Umi was just watching him with interest, and showed no signs of suspicion. Of course, she wouldn't have any idea what notes he'd given to his ward’s lead priest and judge to work on. That had been the whole point.

Letting go of Umi he got up from the table and went to the larder. He kept a notebook on the top shelf, out of the way. It would probably be more sensible to keep it in his study so it couldn't wander off, but he would probably lose it himself in there among all the other paper. Walking back to the table, he flipped through to find the page he'd copied out for Kalos and Brisa. It wasn't quite as detailed as the version he’d written for them, but they should be able to manage. Still...

"I don't have another copy," he explained, keeping hold of the little book when Aveo reached out. It had taken him two months to get this far. He didn't want to have to start over if this copy were lost.

Aveo kept her hand out. "I'll keep an eye on them," she promised, which was more reassuring than he'd like to admit. He handed the book over carefully. She thumbed through the notes and sighed. "I suppose I'll copy out the relevant portions and return it to that shelf, as there’s no way Kalos or Brisa will even try to read this gibberish."

"Hey! Those are my own personal notes! If I can read it, that's all the matters."

"So you admit that your handwriting is terrible?" Aveo held the book up and raised an eyebrow at him.

It was a household game, teasing him. The past two years had seen the whole lot of them finding ways to poke fun at him when he was being too serious, which was, to quote Getz, ‘the whole bloomin’ time’. That was probably his own fault. He'd chosen his people because they weren't afraid of him, and would be more than willing to point out when he was out of line. It was tiring enough to have people in awe of him half the week, he didn't want that at home. And this was home for him now, far more than the Castle. That was just where he worked, and caught up with a few friends.

Which made having Umi here far more… intimate than he’d expected.

"While you're up, Clef," Getz said with a grin as he leaned back in his chair again. "Would you mind putting the kettle on?"

Clef threw up his hands and stalked out of the dining room. He filled the kettle and thumped it down a little bit harder than he meant to. Aveo shouted something about him having to replace it if he broke it, but he ignored her and set about the routine of preparing a tray of tea.

It was calming, pottering about and gathering the teapot, cups, and saucers. He chose a light fragrant tea that seemed to now be growing best up north. The tin only had enough for maybe one or two more pots after this one. He'd have to mention it to Aveo, so she could order more. Two large spoonfuls in the pot and he walked the tin back to the larder.

Umi appeared in the doorway a few minutes later, carrying the stack of dirty plates. "Where do I put these?"

"Over there." He motioned toward the dish sink before turning back to the now boiling kettle.

She set the plates down and joined him at the worktable. "Anything I can do to help?"

"The sweetener." Clef waved a hand at the little pot that matched the tea service he was using. Umi obediently bounced over to it and set it on the tray while he filled the pot. Her fingers paused on the lid after she set it down and she looked up at him. The uncertain look on her face almost startled him enough to spill the boiling water, but he managed to catch himself before he'd dripped more than two drops down the side of the teapot. "What is it?"

"The ball tomorrow…"

"Yes." He turned momentarily to set the kettle back down then returned his full attention to her. "What about it?"

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" She asked, tracing the curve of the handle on the pot. "Me going with you, that is."

"Why wouldn't it be? I'm allowed to have _friends_." He knew full well what she meant. He was aware how frighteningly close this friendship was to becoming the ‘something more’ he wasn't allowed under the current laws.

Umi bit her lip and turned away from him with a sigh. Rather than reach out for her, like he wanted, Clef flexed his fingers against the table. One, two, three taps of his fingers and he knew how to get that smile back. Though it would probably also get him hit.

Leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table and chin on his knuckles. "Unless you're trying to tell me that you're actually a terrible dancer, and I'd be embarrassing the both of us taking you out on the floor."

"Hey!" Umi spun around, narrowing her eyes at him. Yes, that was much better. "I'm a good dancer."

"Yet Caldina keeps talking about needing to get you girls into lessons before the festival ball in two months." He picked up the tray and carried it back toward the dining room.

Umi followed after him. "That's just because we don't know all the Cephiran dances!"

"Are you saying you actually need lessons then?" he teased, setting the tray down on the table close to Getz and Aveo, his hands lingering a moment as he turned back to Umi with a grin.

Getz muttered something about him taking his time, and had already started setting out cups by the time Clef turned back to the tea set. Aveo had the pot in hand before he'd even gotten to pouring. Aygo seemed to have wandered off, possibly to catch up on the reading he'd absolutely not finished.

"What, are you offering to teach me?" Umi leaned against the doorframe, eyebrows raised, arms crossed in a way that pulled her dress tighter across the chest.

Not that he noticed this, of course.

"Tea?" he asked, turning back to the table to pick up one of the cups.

"That wasn't an answer," she said.

Her light footsteps back into the room were nearly drowned out by Getz's sniggering. Clef thumped him, open palm, with his free hand across the back of the head, which only made him laugh properly.

"If the ballroom is any indication, Master Clef's not danced in a very long time." Getz dodged another blow. "So, perhaps you ought to be teaching him to dance, my Lady."

.*.*.*.

Umi paused at the end of the table, her cheeks growing warm again. She ignored the way Aveo was watching her over the rim of her cup and the teasing prodding of Getz; she kept her eyes fixed on Clef's.

"Can you dance?" The question coming out more like a challenge than a enquiry.

Clef set down the cup he was holding. "Of course I can dance."

"Show me."

His expression started as the usual one which was almost always followed by his declaration that whatever she was asking of him was a bad idea, before morphing into something more like an appraisal as he glanced down the length of her body. Possibly he’d meant to check how suitable her outfit was for dancing - he did have a thing about ‘appropriate clothing’ - but it didn’t feel like that.

They both swallowed, and Clef took a long breath before he spoke, his voice betraying a hint of roughness. "Very well then."

Shoulders back, with a look of utmost determination, he held out a hand to her; tea was apparently forgotten.

Clef led her down a long corridor toward a wing of the house she hadn't explored yet. Two large doors opened into a grand room, with a high-vaulted ceiling and windows almost as tall as the ones she was used to in the castle. From the look of it, it could have once served as a ballroom or at least a very grand dining hall, but that didn't seem to be its purpose at all anymore.

Every bit of wall space was lined with bookshelves, packed with volumes upon volumes of the books she recognised as histories of Cephiro. Tables with chairs filled any open space. It looked like the sort of library one would find at a university. A good fifty students could easily study without getting in each other's way.

"Come on then," Clef said, walking over to one of the nearby tables. "Help me with this."

Umi laughed as they shoved the table back against one of the bookcases. It took a while, but they moved all the tables out of the way before Clef knelt down at the edge of the carpet and began to roll it up toward the opposite wall. Umi got down beside him when it started to go wonky - it was at least ten meters wide, and that was the short side - and helped expose a beautiful parquet dance floor. Sure he was more the bookish type, but why on earth would he cover up such a glorious floor with this great damn carpet?

Heck, if this house was only a few years old - and it had to be, nothing but the Castle had survived the reformation standing - why did he have a ballroom at all?

"This house… it’s built on my memories of the one I grew up in, as a kind of framework. So we have a ballroom, but I'm not all that fond of balls and dancing," he explained when she asked. "Well…at least not hosting them. So it seemed to make sense to make use of it another way, and I do have a lot of books here."

"But this is such a beautiful room," Umi complained, looking around them. It would be a nice place to host parties. Even if Clef didn't always like noise or people, he seemed to have fun at some of the festivals and things.

"Would you rather I return it to a ballroom?"

Umi looked around at the room. It was a grand library, for sure. A perfect place for people to come and study. But there were other places for books, surely, and covering that floor felt like a crime. "Maybe a little?"

"I'll have to think about it." He looked about them thoughtfully. "It is a lot of books, you know. But I suppose I could find space to build another one - probably without the sprung flooring."

Umi ducked her head to hide the hot flush spreading across her cheeks. She wasn't asking him to change his house for her, that wasn't her place. She just thought it was too nice a room to just keep books in.

Clef closed all the space between them, and she tried to keep from getting horribly distracted just from that. Adjusting her posture with a firm hand between her shoulder blades, another on her hip, he settled the two of them into a closer angle as he began to explain the pacing and steps of the first dance.

It was a simple one, the first Caldina had shown them, but Caldina had run them through so many during their sporadic dance lessons that Umi always got the names and movements muddled together. But Clef guided her steadily through the first few steps, moving slowly, and then picking up the pace a little as she started to get the feel of the motion. The dance itself was a little like a waltz back home, except it this one was patterned on four beats a bar, not three; enough to confuse her all on its own. Clef counted the beat for her as they made their way across the floor, one finger tapping it out on her back as well.

She tried to listen, but the nearness of him made it difficult to pay attention to what he was saying. The lingering hold on her hip and the brush of his fingers on her back - bare skin, at that - was more than a little distracting even without the flickering of magic between them. Her heart refused to slow down, and she was breathing awfully hard for the very slow simple steps they were taking as he started them on another of the dances.

It didn't help her concentration at all when Clef slipped from just counting the beat to humming a soft melody as he guided her along. He might claim to not like dancing, but he was definitely not bad at it. She had little trouble keeping up with him as they moved across the floor. He wasn’t trying to do anything fancy, but seven centuries of festival balls must have given him practise enough the motions all felt natural.

Shadows moved across the floor as time passed, and they kept on dancing. A while later she realised one of the songs he had started singing actually had words to it. By the time she'd actually noticed, though, he'd slowed his steps and the words tapered off. What fragments she'd gathered before they came to a halt told her it was a love song, but what kind of love, she wasn't quite sure. The melody was beautiful, whatever it was.

"That was lovely, why'd you stop?"

A soft, unhappy kind of smile tugged at his lips as he met her gaze. "It's not a happy song."

He stood there a moment, simply holding her. Then his smile grew real, and gained a wicked glint as he tugged her back into a close hold.

"Has Caldina shown you this one?" he asked, pulling her with him into something very like a quickstep, almost cackling as he counted out a beat. He gave her a few minutes to catch the steps and then his counting started to speed up as they moved faster and faster, the added spring in the flooring helping keep the bounce in their steps as they flew about. Eventually Umi stumbled, and they stuttered to a halt, breathless and giggling in the middle of the room.

"You did well," Clef laughed, his eyes sparkling with happiness.

It was perhaps the most carefree she'd seen him lately. Umi bounced lightly on her feet, ready to give it another go. Her feet were a little sore from what must be hours of dancing about, but she was having a lot of fun, and was beginning to really look forward to the ball tomorrow evening.

Clef reached his hand up and brushed a hair from her cheek, and his magic flickered lightly across her skin.

Without really thinking, Umi pulled him back towards her. Clef leaned in and tilted his head almost automatically. Her lips brushed against his, and she felt him take in an abrupt breath. His fingers tightened on her waist and she felt the sharp charge of electricity crackle through his touch.

Rather than pull away after a moment, as he always did, Clef flicked his tongue teasingly against her lips. She opened her mouth with a soft gasp. He tangled one hand into her hair at the base of her plait while the other wrapped more firmly about her waist, holding her close.

One of them let out a moan as a surge of energy pulsed between them, and Umi could feel something shift against her thigh that had nothing to do with magic.

"Oh," she breathed, pulling back to look at him.

His face was flushed and his eyes were dark, pupils gone wide. Why hadn't she realised it before? The spark of his magic kept growing stronger the longer they touched. Clef had waved it off as just some sort of reaction between their magics, but there was much more to it than that.

No wonder he hadn't wanted to talk about it.

"Umi…" His voice was ragged as he spoke, but whatever he was going to say was immediately silenced by her mouth on his.

.*.*.*.

The touch of her lips drove every other thought out of his head. Clef swayed on his feet, caught off balance by the sensations cascading through his body. Stumbling back a few steps, he tried not to let them both fall over.

He could think of little else but her touch, and his need for it.

Umi dug her fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp, and he was on fire. She pushed forward, sending him back another quick few clumsy steps until his back hit one of the bookcase ladders. The force at which he was slammed into the rungs would probably leave bruises, but he didn't want to be anywhere else. Clef pulled her more tightly to him, fisting his hand in fabric of her dress. The heat of her body against his was overwhelming on its own; but combined with the crisp cool touch of her magic, it was everything.

Her fingers undid the fastening at his collar, before running over the newly exposed skin of his neck. Umi's lips left his and trailed along his jawline. She nipped at the skin just below his ear and he moaned. Teeth dragged down his neck and he shifted against the rungs, trying to pull her closer still. His head lolled back as he tried and failed again to form a coherent thought with Umi’s mouth against his skin.

"Umi -" he tried, failing to find any other words beyond her name.

"Bad idea?" Her lips and breath tickled his neck.

His hum of agreement turned swiftly into a moan when her lips were replaced by a tongue dragging up the side of his throat. Yes, it was a terrible idea. He could just about remember that, but he wasn't sure he cared anymore.

That was wrong. He _absolutely_ didn't care anymore. Not in the slightest.

Laws be damned, Clef tilted his head and pressed a kiss against the bare skin of Umi's shoulder. She turned slightly, and he managed to land a few more feather-light kisses along her collarbone. Umi sucked in a breath and twisted against him.

Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, he pushed against her and spun them both around. He couldn't think properly when she was holding him down. Not that he was thinking much more clearly when she was pinned to the bookcase before him.

Kisses across her skin became licks and then nips. Umi arched her back and pulled him to her as he bit down at the point where her shoulder met her neck. The wanting, breathless noise she made sent another flicker of heat through his body. His hands moved of their own accord, sliding from behind her shoulders down her arms and back up then skittering down Umi's sides before slowly moving upwards again.

Umi's hands had found their way into his outer robe, her palms moving up to his shoulders and back down across the fabric at his chest until they reached the fastenings of his shirt again. Her fingers curled and she let out a hitched moan when his right thumb flicked over her nipple through the thin fabric of her dress. In response she tugged him closer by the collar of his shirt and crushed her mouth to his, her body trembling beneath him. She whimpered and shifted her hips against his when he repeated the gesture with his left hand.

He continued to lavish his attentions upon her for a few achingly short minutes before they were, _fortunately_ , interrupted.

"Ma - Master Clef?" said a quiet voice.

Clef snatched his hands away to rest on the bookshelf above Umi's shoulders, dragged in a shuddering breath, and turned his attention to their intruder. His voice was perhaps a little more pointed than intended. "Yes?"

Elysion shifted where she stood by the door, looking down at her feet. "Mother says that if you're going to cook tonight, you had better get started."

"I'll be down in a moment."

She nodded and bolted from the room.

Clef turned back to Umi. She was flushed and still breathing heavily, but she hadn't moved. Her back was still firmly pressed against the bookcase, and her hands still tangled in the front of his robes. She was looking up at him, expectantly.

He swallowed, afraid of just how _much_ she was expecting from him.

"I should…" he started, removing her hands from his clothing and taking a step back. "I should go."

"Should you?" Umi asked, leaning forward, wetting her lips.

Her dark gaze flitted down to his waist and back up, and Clef found himself suddenly wishing he'd dressed in a few more layers that morning, as very little was hidden by the thin, soft fabric of his trousers. His face heated up even more as he refastened his shirt. Kissing was one thing; they had shared a multitude of chaste kisses over the past few months. What had happened just now was anything but innocent. It was also definitely leaning toward illegal.

If Elysion hadn't turned up when she did…

Clef looked back down at Umi, with her creased dress, rumpled hair, and bright face, and the heat settled back into his stomach. He had never before wanted her as badly as he did then.

Shaking his head in an attempt to ignore that thought, Clef smoothed out his robes as best he could and fled toward the door. "Yes, I _should_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love!


	3. In which Clef cooks dinner and Umi has an awkward conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness, it's been over a month since I updated. I'm going to blame 'visa brain'. Down and I have been being crazy anxious about getting my visa renewed this past month. Thankfully, it now has been, so we should hopefully stop flailing, and perhaps she'll get on with typing in more of the next chapter of Protecting You (I'll try not to distract too much with asking for edits on this fic.... maybe...).
> 
> This is actually the first half of the original draft of Chapter 3, as the chapter was wanting to stretch past the 9K I have allotted as max chapter length, so I should be able to update sooner than this with the next, as it just needs a little fiddling and an edit.

Umi watched Clef all but run out of the ballroom and leaned back against the bookcase for a moment to finish catching her breath. When she'd gone to kiss him, she hadn't expected _that_. 

Not that she was complaining. 

She reached up and touched her neck. The skin was still tingling a little, declaring she hadn't imagined any of it. Her fingers nudged the tie to her dress, which started to slip down her neck - it must have come loose at some point, her dress slithering a few inches lower. 

She hadn’t even _noticed_. 

Yanking the cord back up she tied a hasty bow in it before it actually managed to fall off. Then she pulled the ribbon out of her hair and combed her fingers through it; there was no way it was still presentable. Rather than take the time to braid it again, she simply tied the ribbon around her head like a headband and went off to find Clef. 

He was supposed to be cooking, so it was doubtful that he'd fled the room to hide from her. Even if he had, she wasn't letting him get away without _some_ conversation about what had just happened. 

Umi bounced down the stairs, holding onto the rail as she spun around the bottom corner. The kitchen door was close and stood open a little into the corridor; she could hear two people laughing while Clef grumbled at them. 

"No really, Clef, you have to tell us," said the first, with a giggle. 

"Definitely!” said the second. “We have to know, it's important information." 

"What does it matter what I do in my _own house_?" Clef snapped. 

Opening the door the rest of the way, Umi stepped into the room. Clef was the first to see her. He stood up straighter and swallowed, setting his knife back down on the tall kitchen worktable. His cheeks and ears were flushed before he caught her eye. Once he did, he only got pinker. 

Across the table from him stood two women who looked about Ferio's age, not that looks meant much around here. Both of them wore robes similar to Clef's current outfit. The woman closest to Umi had curly golden hair twisted into a wild halo about her head and robes a deep shade of forest green, long sleeves pooling on the table as she rested her elbows on it. The other, who had one arm about the first woman’s shoulders, had long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and dusky orange clothing. Both of them turned when Clef did, their smiles getting wider. 

"You must be Lady Umi!" said the one in orange, rushing forward to grab her hand. "I'm Kalos. I'm the priest here, and Aveo’s my mother." She pulled her friend forwards with her free arm. "This is Brisa. She's our judge, and you've arrived right in time. Clef was just telling us about the changes to the house rules." 

"No rules have changed!" Clef brandished the long purple root he had been chopping. "I simply said I can do what I like in my own house." 

"Sounds like a double standard to me," Brisa hissed to Kalos, just loudly enough for Umi to hear. 

"Yeah, definitely a double standard." Kalos snickered. "Why can you do things in the library and we can't, Clef?" 

Umi bit back a laugh as Clef picked up his knife again and ignored them, intently chopping the root into fine pieces, muttering about upstarts needing to mind their own dratted business. 

"See, the way I hear it," Brisa said, turning to Umi with a grin, “you two were getting a bit friendly in the library. That sort of thing is supposed to be kept to private rooms, with locks.” She looked back at Clef. “The library is definitely off limits." 

“It certainly was the last time we got yelled at for enthusiastic kissing in there,” Kalos added. 

Umi gave in and started giggling into her hand. 

Clef slammed the knife down and squared himself at them. "If you two aren't going to be helpful, you can get out of my kitchen." 

"We are being helpful." Kalos declared, feigning innocence with wide, wide eyes. "We just want to know what the new rules are, so we can tell everyone. If we don't know, how can we all follow them?" 

"Out!" Clef insisted. 

The two of them cackled and ran for the door to the vegetable garden. Brisa paused in the doorway. "That includes the kitchen! No make-outs while you’re cooking! If we can't, you can't." 

"I didn't have my hands _inside_ anyone's clothes!" he shouted, throwing the end of the root out the door after them as they vanished. 

Umi walked over to the table, still snickering. Clef set the sticks of purple root aside and picked up something that looked rather like a knobbly chunk of ginger, beginning to peel it in one slow continuous spiral. The inside was an unexpected bright green. 

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice barely loud enough for her to hear. 

"About what?" 

He huffed a soft, embarrassed laugh. " _Earlier_." 

There was a blush spreading heat across Umi’s cheeks, even though talking about it had been the entire reason she’d followed him, instead of letting him calm down. "I kissed you first." 

"But I didn't need to get so carried away with... returning it." He dumped the long bit of skin into the basket of scraps on the corner of the table, still not looking at her. 

"I wasn't complaining." Umi shrugged. He was embarrassed, but still talking to her - she probably shouldn’t push it by telling him she'd very much like to do it again. Instead, she grinned. "I had my hands inside your robes. Does that mean we were breaking whatever rule they were talking about?" 

"For the love of -" Clef set his knife down and pointed at the door. "If you're going to start that too, you can go join them outside." 

"Okay, okay!" Umi raised her hands in mock defeat. "What can I do to help?" 

Clef picked up another knife and passed it to her, followed by a board and a large orange squash-like thing not too unlike a pumpkin. “This needs to be peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks about the size of - er, the end of your thumb?” 

She set to work while Clef minced his root, which smelled a lot like garlic, before chopping up a cut of meat.They spent the next half hour or so preparing ingredients, not talking about anything except the task in hand. Not that Umi didn’t try, but Clef was intent on preparing the meal, rather than discussing what happened in the library, or anything else remotely relating to their not-a-relationship. 

It wasn't a relationship, because that would be _illegal_. As Clef had told her repeatedly, with little to no detail on what that meant. Though at least now she knew he was working on it… even if she didn’t quite know what that meant either. They were just friends. Though Umi wasn't sure friends got that handsy with one another, nor did they go so very quiet and red when you mentioned it afterwards. 

Once there were only a few things left for Umi to chop, Clef procured spices from a cupboard and then started pulling down pots and pans and took them around the corner to a large range.He was sautéing meat and frying vegetables when Umi brought him the last of the dark green leaves he'd wanted chopped as thinly as possible. She was pretty sure he hadn't counted on years of helping her mother in the kitchen—at fifteen her mother had decided she ought to know more than just baking, so started teaching her this, too—because his eyes widened at the microscopically thin shred of leaves. 

Umi leaned back against the wall out of his way; he seemed to have routine with the cooktop that didn't involve a second set of hands. There was a large pot of something like rice steaming at the back, while he had two others simmering with sauces heavy with tangy fruits and herbs. He was dry frying a selection of vegetables with spices and there were a handful of other things going, all in addition to two salads and the stack of flatbreads already on the table. 

Clef's shoulders loosened as he pottered about, falling into a comfortable rhythm. After a little while, he even started to hum to himself. Eventually he called her over, holding out a spoon and asking for an opinion on the fruit syrup he'd made. She gave him a dubious look and took a step back. 

"I know you don't like sweet things," he said. "Please, try it?" 

Timidly, Umi let him feed her the little bit of sticky orange sauce, hoping it wasn't as cloyingly sweet as it looked. It was surprisingly tangy, almost citrus but with a hint of something like peach in it, and not very sweet at all. Actually, she quite liked it. It reminded her of one of the spicy fruit spreads she'd grown fond of. 

"It's nice." She leaned forward and took the spoon out of his hand so she could have another taste. "What's it going with?" 

He just grinned and picked up a new spoon to stir the pot with as he pulled it off the heat completely. "That’s a surprise." He pointed her toward a cupboard for serving dishes and they plated up the food together, Clef holding the pot while Umi made sure it's contents made it safely onto the plate or into the bowl. 

When they finished with the last one Clef was putting the last pot into the dish sink, and Umi went to pick up the first bowl of what looked and smelled very much like a curry, other voices now audible through in the dining room. Clef’s hand brushed her arm as he, too, reached for the dishes. The snap of magic between them made them both jump, pulling away from the table. 

Clef whispered "Sorry," hesitating beside her before his other hand found her face. His fingers brushed gently over the skin of her cheek, as softer tingling following the touch, before slipping under her chin. “Thank you for helping.” He tilted his head and leaned forward; Umi met him halfway. 

This kiss had less heat than the ones in the library, but still left her giddy and breathless as he pulled away. He smiled at her, and Umi ignored the voices from the next room as she drew him back to her.

.*.*.*.

Clef paid no attention to the taunts Kalos and Brisa were calling from the dining room as Umi pressed her lips to his. Her fingers curled around the back of his neck as she pushed closer, and he completely forgot about the food.

"Told you they’d gotten distracted," Kalos cackled to Brisa in the doorway, before sweeping past them for the dishes. 

Umi pulled away, hand still on his neck as she smiled at him. The temptation to tilt his head and taste that smile grew stronger every second they stood there, still looking at each other. 

"Either take it upstairs or get out here and eat," Getz complained, walking out with more food. 

Clef’s breath caught in his throat as Umi tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear. He swatted her hand away. "Stop that." 

"Sorry." She smiled, not the least bit apologetic. Her hands ran down his neck across his shoulders and down his arms, lingering to brush over his wrists. He wavered towards her and she bit her lip, watching him with intent. "Dinner…" 

"Can wait?" he found himself saying wistfully as he reached to stroke her cheek, again. 

"Clef!" Umi grinned at him. 

With a soft laugh, he took a step back. “Right. Dinner.” Turning abruptly, he picked up one of the last dishes of food and passed it to Umi, who was standing there biting her lower lip and giggling at him. “I’ll be through in a moment,” he said, propelling her gently in the direction of the dining room. 

He leaned against the table and tried to compose himself a little. He adjusted and readjusted his robes, knowing full well it wasn't going to help much until he’d properly calmed down, and his household would find a reason to poke fun at him about this regardless. 

Picking up the final dish, he walked into the dining room as Umi was being introduced to Kalos and Brisa's young apprentices, Uruvan and Ciel. The only empty place left was beside her. He set the dish of vegetables down, and Getz declared "Let's eat!" before everyone else started passing food around. 

Not one person brought up the kissing. No one returned to the argument about house rules. The only conversations were about the food, lessons, and things that needed doing about the house in the coming week. 

The distinct lack of teasing was more suspicious that anything. At least three of the four other adults at the table were watching his interactions with Umi with great interest. Brisa whispered something to Kalos when he helped Umi serve herself some food, then Getz winked back at them as Umi poured a drink for Clef. 

Aveo's voice snapped his attention back to the far end of the table. "I've left a report on your desk for you to read." 

"I'll try to get that tonight," Clef said. "Anything that needs looking at immediately?" 

"Not at the moment." Aveo smiled at him, the same dratted smile he saw far too often on Kalos's face. "I think it can even wait until morning." 

Kalos coughed a bit too enthusiastically and Brisa jabbed her in the side with an elbow. Clef ignored the lot of them and focused his attention on his food, letting the conversation flow past him. As Kalos and Brisa were telling Umi about their roles in running the Ward, he didn’t even have to entertain her. 

After everyone was finished eating, Clef got up from the table and went back into the kitchen, slipping into the larder for the dessert. He’d spent the past few months tweaking the recipe after getting the basic idea from asking Umi rather a lot of questions about her hobby, and the last attempt had almost been right. He’d have liked to have spent a bit more time on the project, but he had only so many free hours. He carried the confection out, picking up the bowl with his syrup on the way, carrying them back to the dining room. 

Umi’s eyes went wide as he walked in. "That's a cake!" Umi gasped, going from sitting up straight to standing, her chair squealing across the tile floor. "You- when did- how?" 

"We baked it," Brisa laughed. "While you two were busy in the library." 

"It’s Clef's recipe, though." Kalos admitted. 

He set both of the dishes down on the table, and by the time he'd got back to his seat, Aveo was taking a fairly sharp knife to the cake. 

"Now, it's not quite the same as what you make, but -" He didn’t get to finish explaining, because Umi threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. 

"Oh! Do we get a thank you like that?" Kalos teased. "We baked it after all.” 

Umi hid her face against his neck for a moment, laughing, while he pulled a face at Kalos and Brisa. They were far worse together than they had ever been apart. It had been bad enough when they were simply pupils he had the training of, years ago, and well before they’d started seeing one another. 

He stroked Umi’s hair and then murmured, "Don't you want to try it?" 

She dropped back down into her seat, face flushed, and took a fork to the slice someone had already set in her place. 

"It's good!" she announced, and Clef grinned at her, pleased to hear that. He'd tried to keep the flavour simple and not too sweet, so it would be something she could enjoy.

Dessert ended with the usual arguments when it was one of the children's turns to tidy up. "It's Aygo's turn to do the washing up!" Urvan declared, shoving himself away from the table, his chair letting out a loud squeal across the tile floor as he did so. 

Aygo brandished his fork. "Hey! It's not my night." 

"Is so." Ciel crossed her arms and glared at Aygo. "You can't get out of it every time your name comes up. Urvan may have done it for you last week when we were here, but we're not doing it this week." 

Aygo looked over at Elysion and batted his eyelashes in a ridiculous manner. 

She looked at him with narrowed eyes and a simple "No," looking very like both Aveo and Kalos right then, though she was generally the least forceful of Aveo’s children. 

"Fine." Aygo stood and picked up the pile of plates before skulking out of the room. 

There was a loud clunk and rattle as he thumped them in the sink, and Aveo shouted, "Hey!" 

"Sorry!" 

Clef shook his head. Time to escape, before he could compound the errors of the day so far by offering to lick the last of the sauce from Umi's lips, or something equally unwise. He rose from the table. "Good night, everyone." 

"Where are you going?" Umi asked, confused. 

Oh. "My um.." 

"Master Clef likes to have a bath every night before bed," Brisa said, smirking. "You should ask him to show you where the bathroom is." 

Clef blinked and looked down at Umi. "Has no one shown you the bath?" He suddenly felt like a failure of a host, realising he hadn’t actually shown her any of the house. They'd only taken a walk about the grounds. He'd shown her nothing indoors at all, not even the basic amenities. "I supposed, if you wanted to come with me -" 

Kalos let out a howl, and Umi blushed scarlet. 

"That is _not_ an invitation to join me!" he found himself declaring as all eyes at the table focused on him. Heat ran up his neck and across his cheeks as he flailed a hand. "I was just going to show you where it is." 

"Sure you were," Getz murmured. 

Clef ignored him, despite the temptation to do otherwise. "Remind me tomorrow, Umi, and I can give you a tour of the house." 

Umi nodded. "I'll hold you to that." 

He turned away from the table entirely before anyone could start openly laughing at him. A little time alone would hopefully be good for clearing his head.

.*.*.*.

Umi picked up the empty cake plate from the table, smiling. She still couldn’t believe he’d actually baked her a cake. Well, maybe he hadn’t actually baked this one, but to get something that close he must have spent weeks working on the recipe. The instructions she’d given him when he’d asked were the bare basics at most. She carried the plate out to the main part of the kitchen, passing it to Aygo at the sink. She had just turned back to the dining room when Aveo appeared at her side and looped an arm through hers.

"I think that you and I ought to have a talk," Aveo said. Her voice carried no accusation, but something about the tone sent Umi's mind back to the earlier declarations about house rules being broken. 

"I'm sorry," she breathed. "I won't - we won't -" 

How could she promise that it wouldn't happen again? She hadn't expected Clef to be so receptive earlier, let alone instigate another kiss a mere hour later, and it was rather hard to remember where she was or anything at all when he was kissing her. Not that kissing should be happening _anywhere_ , but- 

"Oh, don't worry about that." Aveo chuckled and tugged her out through the dining room and up a different short staircase into a different wing of the house. It didn’t have the murals or the paintings and collection of random artifacts which decorated the other part, Clef’s part. Instead the walls were left simple and clean but every windowsill had at least one plant happily thriving, a profusion of green. 

They walked through a corridor and into the second door, which led to a large study. Rather than Clef's wild piles of paperwork strewn about, this one had a wall of cubbie holes and shelves with neatly written labels. The only sheets of paper on the table were in a single tidy stack, filled with neat rows and columns. Umi recognised some of the squiggles as numbers, she'd just about gotten a handle on those. With the multiple sets of figures on each line and text around them, she guessed they must be accounts of some sort. 

She took step forward in curiosity. Aveo dropped her arm and turned to the little cabinet by the door; Umi followed her, leaving the paperwork. 

"Clef has been very adamant that nothing is going to happen between you this week, but you do seem to be very bad for his common sense." Aveo opened the cupboard and picked something up off the shelf. "While I know he wouldn't intentionally put you in an uncomfortable position, it’s probably best if you have something." Aveo pressed two small phials into Umi’s palm. "Do you know how to use it?" 

Umi couldn't stop the flush rising up her neck and across her cheeks as she looked down at the two bottles containing what she knew was one of the more common contraceptive potions. Each was about the size of her thumb, with a small mouthful of a light-green liquid inside. 

It had been almost a year since Caldina had sat all three of them down and given them an embarrassingly thorough talk about sex and safety in Cephiro, but she was pretty sure she remembered the basics of this potion, so she nodded. 

"Tell me." Aveo closed Umi's fingers over the little bottles, not letting go of her hand. "Tell me how it works." 

"You have to take it every day for at least five days, after..." Why was her face so hot? Why did this have to be so embarrassing? If she wanted to sleep with him she ought to be prepared. “It stops anything happening while you’re taking it, and after five doses, the effects last seven days more or so, right?” 

"Good girl." Aveo nodded approvingly and let go of her hand. 

“But-" Umi started. She had five days now, but her next visits would be much shorter, usually just Sunday afternoons for a few hours. “After this week-” 

"I don't care what he says, he should be taking something too.” Aveo waved toward the cabinet. “Just remind him if he hasn't started soon. It’ll take a couple of days for his to come into effect, but between the two of you, this week, you should be covered." 

Umi clutched the bottles to her chest and backed toward the door. "Thank you." 

"There's more when you need it. This is always open, so anyone who needs to can get in." Aveo tapped the cupboard door. She must have noticed Umi’s fidgeting. "Go on, you don't need to stick around here" 

Not needing to be told twice, Umi shot from the room. Having no pockets, there was no place to tuck the bottles out of the way, so she just gripped them tightly in her hand. She hoped to slip through the kitchen unnoticed, and head back up to her room, but she was stopped by Brisa calling out to her from the worktable. 

"Hey! We're going to play a game, if you want to join us." Brisa was pouring hot water into the teapot, and smiled up at her. 

Kalos came around the corner from the dining room and added. "It's really easy to learn." 

Umi shook her head and crept closer to the door. 

Kalos glanced down at her hands, then back up to her face. Her lips twitched, but she looked more understanding than amused. "Ah. Mum did talk to you, then." 

Brisa's smile was gentle. "If you want to put that away, the offer still stands. It'll take us a few minutes to set up. If you want to come back down, we’ll probably still be setting the cards out, and we’d be happy to wait for you?" 

"No. Thank you, but I’m fine." Umi bowed to both of them and then scurried out of the room. 

Running up the stairs and into her bedroom, she shut the door firmly behind her and leaned back against it, trying to catch her breath as she looked down at the two phials in her hand and laughed hysterically at herself. Why was she so flustered? It wasn't like she didn't want to sleep with him. Just… everyone knowing was... 

Umi shook her head. She knew perfectly well that if her mother had any idea that she had a serious boyfriend (and Clef wasn't exactly her boyfriend, but her feelings about him were pretty serious,) that she'd have been given a box of condoms and another very awkward conversation about responsibility. How was this any different? 

Aside from the fact the person giving it to her was practically a stranger, and worked with Clef. 

Two deep breaths, and Umi managed to compose herself enough to cross the room and shove the bottles into one of her drawers, then slam it shut again. She paced across the room to sit on the bed and turned around to stare at the drawer. 

With another shake of her head, she got up and walked back, ignoring the drawer and going for the wardrobe instead. She chose a book randomly from the bottom of her bag. All of them were new, so it didn't make much of a difference which she started with. 

Flopping back on the bed she thumbed through the first few pages of the book, absently. Her mind was still whirring with the past few hours. She clutched the book to her chest and stared up at the ceiling. 

It wasn’t like they hadn’t kissed before, but never with that sort of intent. And never that public… 

Suddenly wide-eyed, Umi sat up realising that she had not only kissed Clef multiple times that afternoon, but that she’d done it with witnesses - one of them a judge! Clef wasn’t supposed to be in a relationship at all, which probably included kissing people, so had she just gotten him a whole heap of trouble over a silly dance and some cake? 

_He_ hadn’t seemed worried, not in the kitchens, but they’d already been seen by then. He couldn’t have decided he was already in trouble so he might as well earn it, could he? 

Umi would have, if it was her. 

But Clef was more sensible than that. Wasn’t he? Even with her encouraging him into being nothing of the sort?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts welcome and appreciated.


	4. In which Clef has Opinions about romance novels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Down's edits on this fic keep going on the way they do, I ought to just straight up give her a writing credit. Not to mention I keep having her basically write some of the conversations I am struggling with. I give the detail I want in and she helps with a first draft of the words. More so on the conversation in the beginning of the next chapter, but there is a little bit in this one.

Clef planned to put some space between them that evening, or so he was trying to convince himself when he walked into his study, hair still damp from his bath. There was so much work he needed to get ahead on or at the very least caught up with before the ball the next day. He'd just gotten himself settled at his desk when there was a soft knock on the door.

“Yes?” he called.

“Um… Clef?”

He looked up to see Umi peering at him from around the partially open door with a sheepish smile on her face. “Yes?”

She stepped into the room slowly, a book clutched tightly in her hand. “Have I gotten you in trouble?”

He blinked at her, confused. “How would you have got me in trouble?”

“Brisa’s a judge!” Umi’s voice squeaked slightly.

“Yes? And?”

“Doesn’t that mean she’s all about upholding the laws of Cephiro and all that? I mean…”

What she meant clicked then. “You needn’t worry about Brisa.” Clef folded his arms across his papers and smiled at Umi. Of all the moments to start actually listening to him... He shook his head when Umi opened her mouth to protest. “No one in my household will say anything unless they believe it will endanger Mazda or Cephiro. Or possibly me.” The lot of them might torment him mercilessly for the next few months over this, but none of them would see any reason the Council should know about it.

“Household…?” Umi looked at him with a strange expression on her face. “Clef... did you bring me home to meet your _family_?”

The confusion returned. “What?”

“It’s just, the way you said that…” She tilted her head, the corners of her lips turning up. “And how they tease you…” 

He blinked, and couldn’t work out how to contradict her. Technically, Aveo was related to him, though she was his niece down enough generations neither of them bothered to track it - which meant Kalos and Elysion were technically relations as well. And, as Brisa and Kalos were in a declared relationship, Brisa could probably claim him as her great-something-ridiculous-uncle too. Then Getz had adopted the lot of them so firmly he refused to move out, though they’d built him a perfectly nice house just down the road.

Umi meant something rather _more_ than he’d ever considered them, but he couldn’t say she was wrong, either. He knew without a doubt that any of the people downstairs would do anything they could to help him, without hesitation. He’d just never sat down and thought of it like that, not even in the two years since he’d chosen them to come and form the backbone of his ward Circle, and moved them out here with him.

He sat there in silence for a good minute, and he must have had a Look on his face as he did so, because Umi slowly dissolved into giggles. “If you’re going to laugh at me, you can leave,” he told her, in a pointless attempt at preserving his dignity. “I have work to do!”

“I’m sorry! Your face - I’ll be good! Quiet, even! I have a book.” She brandished it at him like a shield. “I could just- read over here on this settee. Not disturbing you. If that’s okay?”

The answer should have been ‘no'. Considering what had happened earlier that afternoon, it should have been a _resounding_ ‘no', but instead, it was his heart that spoke. "Of course."

Her smile was practically incandescent as she bounded further into the room, and he couldn't help but be cheered by it. He told her to make herself comfortable, before settling himself even more securely behind the ramparts of paper on his desk. It wasn't as if this wasn’t familiar, in its own way; Umi had spent a lot of time in his office the last few months, studying or reading while he worked. Plus he was still trying to sort out the mess of things she'd made that morning, which was going to take a fair amount of attention.

Make herself comfortable is exactly what Umi did. By the time he'd actually looked up, she'd piled all the small cushions into a mound on one arm of the settee and was leaning back against it with her feet casually propped on the other arm, opening her book.

He had grown accustomed to her company over the years. No, being honest, it was more than that. He liked spending the evening with Umi. He might be loathed to admit it, but the time they’d spent together over the past six, almost seven, months - since she first kissed him and started creeping further and further into his life - had become rather the highlight of his weeks. 

Lately, though, her presence was more often a distraction than a comfort, and he'd been trying to discourage her for both their sakes.

Clef focused on sorting out the tea stained paper. He'd got through most of the first stack of papers, trying to find the second half of various reports and documents in the next, then Umi stifled a giggle, and he looked up. She'd gone from leaning back gracefully to sunk down the settee, her head barely even on her pile of cushions and her left ankle hooked up over the back of it rather than the arm. He dragged his attention away from her and back to his task. 

Ten minutes later she laughed again, and when he looked she was upside down, with both her feet thrown over the back of the settee, her book held precariously over her head. The short skirt of her dress was pooled around her hips, giving him a complete view of her legs from ankle to thigh.

Reports and trade agreements were not _nearly_ distracting enough to keep his attention on his work.

"What are you reading?" he asked, hoping to catch her attention long enough she'd notice what she was doing.

Umi nearly fell off the settee in her rush to sit back upright. She yanked her clothes back into place, blushing furiously as she turned back to him. "Um…" Her hand flailed slightly.

"You kept laughing," he prompted, gently. It wasn’t wholly a ploy, he was actually intrigued by what could hold her attention so well.

"Oh!" Umi looked at her book and then back up at him. "It's snowing and cold, and all their clothes are wet." She giggled again. "There's also no heating in their cabin, and they've only found one blanket."

Ah, one of those books. "So they're going to have to cuddle for warmth?" Clef was smiling now. He must have read a thousand versions of that story over the years, but it was still far more interesting than the missing end of the current economic report. 

"Uh... Yeah…" Umi answered, looking a bit startled when he pushed his chair back from his desk so he could see her properly.

He leaned back in the chair and grinned. "Or do you think they're going to end up sleeping together?"

"Well, they might, but that would make things complicated." She blushed again, biting her lip.

"I imagine there must be some sort of circumstance dictating they can't be together yet." He waved a hand at the book, she was only a little over half the way through. 

Umi smiled and shrugged. "He still has to find out if she's guilty of killing her father or not."

He snorted. "She didn't do it, of course." 

"But he doesn't know that," she agreed.

"He'll have to find the murderer then?" 

"Yeah." Umi nodded, and flipped back a few pages thoughtfully. "It's probably her estranged brother. He seems pretty sketchy."

"I don't know why I'm surprised Tokyo has the same sorts of ridiculous stories." 

Umi looked down at the book in her hand for a moment, and a mischievous smile curled at the edge of her lips as she lifted her head again. "What sort of terrible plots do Cephiran stories have?" She scooted over and patted the cushion beside her. "You have to tell me."

He knew he was probably making a mistake, but he went to her anyway.

.*.*.*.

Umi didn't mean to stare, but she wasn't sure anyone else could have helped it either. When Clef walked around his desk, it was the first time she'd gotten a proper look at him that evening. She'd already been trying to ignore the way his hair curled around his face when damp. It was cute the way the ends turned up every which way, clinging to his skin as he moved. But what really got her was his clothing.

Clef was dressed in only a thin grey shirt - one of the high necked ones with the fastenings down the front that he wore under some of his robes lately - and loose dark trousers. Both looked soft and well worn, the sort of comfortable clothing one might keep but only wear at home. Somehow the combination of that with his bare feet felt incredibly intimate. 

Umi blushed again when he sat down beside her, squashing the urge to reach out and check if those clothes were as soft as they looked.

"I can tell you some of the old Cephiran stories some time, if you like. There isn't much new being written right now, so I've been getting most of mine from elsewhere lately," he said, shifting a stray cushion from behind himself. "Some are fine, but there are so many that are just… _wrong_."

"How do you mean?" she asked, amused by the frown he was pulling at thin air and the memory of those ‘wrong’ books.

"I don't know if you realise how much Cephiro faded into a myth in the last few centuries. We were so closed off from everything else that most of the other lands forgot we’re actually real." He waved one hand in a circle - the one furthest away from her, so she didn't have to dodge it. "Which means many writers decided that accurate details are merely suggestions, and they can just start making up their own magic systems."

Umi tilted her head, lips twitching. "There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, fantasy is a popular genre on Earth."

"Do you know how jarring it is to read a story supposedly set in Cephiro, but they have our magic completely wrong?" He shook his head at her. "I understand that other countries have different magic systems, but if you’re going to set a story in another land, you should at least have some idea how things work there! If I have to read one more story about someone who is gravely ill or injured being magically healed with vigorous and acrobatic sex, I swear I am going to go hunt the author down and give them a lecture on how that’s both magically and physically impossible!" Both his hands were in the air by now.

"But Cephiro is the land of will. Anything you believe in…" she teased.

"There are specific healing spells. You need a properly trained healer to perform most of them."

"I don't know. Fuu basically made her spells up, and they heal pretty comprehensively."

"No, her magic gave her the words; it's not the same thing.” Clef insisted. “It only worked without real training because you three have so much power you didn’t need to be accurate and none of your injuries were subtle either. Plus, your schooling seems to have given you a lot more biological knowledge than ours does before you specialise. Either way, you don't just fuck someone to fix a fatal head wound or a nicked artery!" Umi could almost see the imaginary author he seemed to be trying to shake some sense into. "If they're that badly injured, sex would probably kill them! And don't even get me _started_ on all the master and apprentice stories."

"Some people like the student-teacher type stuff." 

"You don't sleep with your apprentices, Umi! You're in a position of authority over them, and any relationship would be exploiting that authority." The gesticulating was getting worse, and Umi leant back slightly, laughing. Clef didn't notice her dodging, too caught up in his rant. "Even if someone was the nasty kind of person who would try something anyway, it's against the oath! You would be expelled from your guild!"

"But what if the attraction is mutual?"

"Then you have them assigned to a different master," Clef moved his hands like he was picking up something from Umi's lap and setting it on the cushions the other side of him - presumably the apprentice that was being moved. "Then you should take a break from each other before trying to pursue anything. You don't just leap into bed with someone because you think they're attractive and you've been living with each other for a few years. You wait, and approach any relationship later on equal footing."

Leaning into the cushions further, Umi grinned at him. "Would someone think you're exploiting me?"

"Umi, you aren't my apprentice." He pulled a face at her. "Strictly speaking, as a Magic Knight, I don't even know where that would put you in the hierarchy, but you are definitely not and never will be my apprentice."

“Wait…” she said, slowly. “Clef… is that why you’ve still been refusing to teach me magic this year?” He was suspiciously quiet. “But I asked you months ago! All this time - I told you, I don’t want to be your apprentice; I just want you to teach me how to shield, you idiot!”

“It didn’t seem like a good idea,” he said, primly. Which was as good as a plain admission. 

They sat for a minute or two in the slightly awkward silence before Umi poked him in the shoulder and asked, "Any other terrible tropes you hate?"

It was fun listening to him rant. He not only had opinions, but he was obviously very well read to have formed them. And he leapt at the offered topic.

"Bonding with the enemy," Clef groaned, grimacing in disgust.

"Bonding?" 

"Tangling your magic together with another mage." He waved his hands between them. "I don't care how popular the idea has become, you cannot have a bond with someone and hate them at the same time."

"But how do you tangle your magic with someone?"

"It's - oh, you know - something like joint spell casting, and - er - an emotional connection, and it - it sticks?" He flailed his hands wildly as if trying to grasp the answers from the air, or bat away the question entirely, Umi wasn't sure. "It's complicated!"

Umi smirked at him. "If you don't know how it's done, then how do you know they're wrong?"

"Because -" He grabbed her hand and held it up between them. The sparks flickered softly between their fingers and his magic pulsed through her palm as he tangled their fingers together, sending a shiver up her spine, and back down it. The deliberate flood of magic was as strong as it had been in the library; her breath caught, her chest feeling too tight. " _This_ doesn't happen with someone you _hate_ , Umi. Far from it." 

"Clef…" Umi swallowed, looking at their hands then back up at him. 

The next moment their lips met, and then the rest of them as she reached for him.

.*.*.*.

Somehow they went from looking at their hands to kissing, and Clef was quite sure he'd missed a step or two in between. But he most certainly wasn't complaining when he fell back into the pile of cushions, nor was he protesting when she pressed her body against his and tangled her fingers in his hair. The moaning he was doing had nothing to do with displeasure. Which was probably why his hand had slid up the cool skin of Umi outer thigh, just under the hem of her dress as he guided her legs up and over his lap until she was straddling his hips before he realised that was his goal.

He just wanted to be closer. 

Umi immediately began fumbling with the clasps on the front of his shirt. He half-heartedly brushed her hands away before giving in to his own desire to touch her, instead, wrapping his arms about her. 

The first touches of her fingers down his chest were so soft they would have been ticklish, if it weren't for the shiver of her magic against his skin, pulling a response from his own, making him shudder. She seemed pleased with that, biting his lip and doing it again. 

Umi traced a line of feather-light strokes down the swath of his skin she'd managed to expose. Her lips travelled from his mouth and across his jaw, as she continued her exploration of his skin, and he groaned, shuddering again, hips rocking against hers. Her hands crept under the edges of his shirt, pushing it further off when her kisses reached his neck.

With each touch more magic flooded between them, heightening every touch and every sensation.

Clef ran his hands up and over her shoulders, circling behind her head to pull her down closer. His fingertips skimmed back over her shoulder blades, the top edge of her dress sliding further out of the way as he moved around. Clef thought nothing of the amount of skin he was tracing until his hands returned to Umi's breasts. She let out a breathy moan and rocked against him as his thumbs briefly teased her nipples, not through fabric but against bare skin, the static building beneath his palms with every second of skin to skin contact. 

He opened his eyes then swore, unable to look away. There was no possibility he was ever going to forget the sight of Umi on top of him, her skin flushed, eyes closed, and dress pooled around her hips. 

He was eminently aware of the glorious friction as she moved her hips, pressing herself firmly against his erection with only a few thin layers of fabric separating him from the heat between her legs. She pressed her chest into his hands and tensed, moving more forcefully, the waves of magic washing more and more vigorously across her skin. His hips pitched upwards of their own accord and he was suddenly excruciatingly aware of how tightly coiled the pressure was in his own belly. It took everything he had not just give in to the release.

In one swift and clumsy movement, he tore his hands from Umi's chest and tried to shove himself away from her, only succeeding in tumbling both of them completely off the settee. The fact that he landed half on top of her didn't help matters any.

Umi blinked up at him, only slightly startled, pupils blown wide. She reached out and tried to pull him down to her. 

For the briefest moment, he almost gave in, but straightened his shoulders and sat up trying to steady his breath before saying in a harsh but trembling whisper, "You should go to your room."

A dark flicker of something flashed across Umi's eyes as she leaned up, grasping the front of his shirt and yanking him along as she rolled them over, pinning him solidly to the floor. 

"I don't want to."

The position combined with the demand in her voice lit him up like a spring lightning storm. He swayed up toward her, lips almost brushing hers, before he came back to his senses. He ripped himself back out of her grasp and tried to scoot out and away from her. They could not be doing this. It _wasn’t legal_.

"Either you go, or I do," he growled.

.*.*.*.

Umi seethed with anger. She burned for his touch in the hollows of her hips. She wanted him desperately and she had been pretty sure he wanted her too (There had been no denying the effect she’d had on him.) but here he was just shoving her away. She had been so close that another kiss or another touch of his hands on her skin would probably have sent her over the edge. Now she was just going to have to start the build again, not from scratch, but close to it.

"No." She tightened her grip on his shirt and yanked him forward. "I want you to finish what you started."

He hissed in a breath and wrapped his fingers around her wrists, pushing her away from him. "We can't _do_ this."

"I don't care about the stupid law!" She declared, defiantly leaning into his space. For a moment there, she had been pretty sure he wasn't giving it a thought either.

"I _do_!" he all but shouted, pulling away from her and refastening his shirt, staring fixedly at his hands.

Indignation mingled with embarrassment as she sat there, eyes burning, becoming very aware of her missing dress and of Clef's refusal to even look at her when a minute ago he’d had his hands all over her.

Hauling the fabric of her dress up to cover her chest, she threw herself off the floor and away from him. She wanted to tell him just what he could do with himself, but she didn't trust herself not to cry if she did. She stormed out of Clef's study and back to her room, slamming both doors behind her for good measure. 

Tears prickled at her eyes as she flung herself down onto the bed. Yes, she shouldn't be pushing him or trying to take things too far, but what was he doing kissing her like that? What did he think would happen when he had pulled her onto his lap and started touching her? 

How many times was he going to get her heart racing and then push her away? 

It was beyond infuriating. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down, but every time she thought she was cooling off, she remembered the feeling of his magic coursing against her skin and his fingers in her hair and on her thigh, the sharp sting of it against her chest. Which led to her thinking even more about what his fingers, and that magic, would feel like on not-her-thigh. With a growl, she twisted onto her back, staring at the painted ceiling, swirls of pale grey with little blue flowers tucked here and there. 

It was no good. She could just lay there for the next few hours stewing in her own furious arousal, or she could take matters into her own hands.

The first touch was startling, charged with her own excited magic. There hadn’t been many private moments in Cephiro to experiment, and it seemed rude to do anything at night when she shared a room with her friends. 

It had been more and more difficult to wait in the past few months, since Clef had reached his current form. He'd warned people that he was doing it, so she had wondered what it might mean for their not-quite-a-relationship, but she hadn’t anticipated just how badly she would want him. 

It was hard enough just being in love with him, without wanting to drag him into her bedroom. (Or a storeroom, or his study…)

Umi started slowly. Her fingers were colder than they normally were as the water magic eddied - it wasn't an unpleasant sensation. She imagined the sharp snap of Clef's electricity instead and let out a sigh, drawing gentle circles around her clit.

Clef's study door creaked open, and she heard his footsteps coming along the corridor.

Pushing herself up the bed, Umi shimmied out of her underwear. She leaned back into her pillows, working to pull more magic. She wanted him to notice the spell she was weaving, the power coursing through her fingers. Her eyes focused on the door as her breath came more and more raggedly. Silently she dared him to come tell her off for frivolous magic use.

She could still feel the touch of his hands on her back, sliding over her neck, fingers holding onto her waist. Magic pulsing through his skin with every beat of his heart, shuddering through her. 

He’d shoved her away, but he was still all she wanted. If only his fingers in place of hers as she pressed them inside, grinding against the heel of her hand. What would that spark feel like there?

The footsteps paused outside her door. 

Umi raised her hips, a moan catching in her throat, as she just about managed to crook her fingers right, wishing for his instead. With or without magic. She imagined his lips on her skin as she ran her hand down the side of her neck, across her chest.

Clef's bedroom door slammed moments later.

Closing her eyes against the heat of tears, she bit her lip. How long was this going to take? Clef was tied up in so many knots. If he could only let go. Just once. Once, and then she could be patient…

That was a lie, and she knew it. It was as much of a lie as the Clef she imagined leaning over her, pressing in… One more brush of her fingers and Umi shattered with a sharp cry. She fell shuddering back into her pillows as the tears started to fall. 

It would be a while yet before she got up to shower, longer still until she managed to sleep.

.*.*.*.

Clef sat in his study, face in his hands. How could he have let that happen? First the library and then this - a hair's breadth from breaking the laws he claimed he was clinging to. All because of what? He threw too much power into the touch and overwhelmed any ability to reason?

There was no chance of getting any work done now, not if it required he be able to think. So he might as well just go to bed. He was certainly worn out.

He waited for a few moments after Umi’s bedroom door slammed. He didn't want to meet her in the corridor and transporting to his room was a dangerous proposition with his mind so utterly tied up in the past half hour; he wanted to be with her so badly, he'd probably end up in her bedroom rather than his own. If she forgave him for being such a complete arse, he was absolutely sure he wouldn’t be leaving that room until morning.

Even knowing all that, when he did slip cautiously out of the room and down the corridor, Clef still found himself hesitating by her door. He just wanted to apologise. If he called through the door, instead of opening it, that should be safe, right? He brought his knuckles up to rap against the wood and froze.

Umi was using magic, not just using it, she was… 

Clef stumbled back, turned on his heel and shot across to his own room. The door shut louder than he meant it to as he slumped against it, instead of pushing it shut, heart racing.

What he needed was a very, _very_ cold shower.

He shed his clothing as he crossed the room, tossing things toward the wall where hopefully he wouldn’t trip on them. He would pick them up later. Walking into the bathroom, he yanked the controls on the shower to the coldest setting and threw himself beneath the stream. 

Unfortunately, the chill did absolutely nothing to cool the heat pooling inside him. The rivulets running down his back felt like fingers trailing down his spine and over his shoulder blades. Her mouth on his neck, her magic pulling against his - 

A shower was probably the absolute worst way to try pushing the _Magic Knight of Water_ out of his head. 

He leaned forward against the tiles and let out a broken laugh, because of course nothing could make this better. 

Clef stood there for ten long minutes until he was nearly trembling with the cold, but it was still doing nothing to quell his desire. Forehead still resting against his arm on the wall, he finally gave in to defeat and reached down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts welcome and very much appreciated!


	5. In which Umi and Clef have a talk about treason (and how Clef totally isn't committing it already)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It currently looks like I may be updating once a month. I have a goal of once a fortnight, but I don't think my beta reader would be up for that given she needs to be finishing Protecting You sometime this century. Thanks, Down, for the beta read through. You make my chapters so much better.

Clef was still mostly asleep when Umi knocked on his door asking if he was awake. He called something that hopefully sounded more like "come in" than incoherent mumbling as he extricated himself from the covers and sat up, blinking blearily at the door and running a hand through his tangled hair.

Umi walked in carrying a tray with a teapot and two cups. She was dressed in yet another little dress, this one again barely halfway down to her knees, so white and lightweight it was nearly translucent. He sighed in exasperation. It wasn't that he had anything against Umi wearing such things, but that she seemed to be wearing them _at_ him was frustrating to no end. She had to know how hard it was not to look when they both knew she _wanted_ him to.

And yet, she wasn't carrying herself like she was set to seduce him. Her smile was merely half-hearted as she said a quiet "good morning."

"Morning." Clef watched her warily. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I - Um…" She stepped forward and around the side of the bed to set the tray beside him like a peace offering. "I brought tea?"

"I can see that."

Umi looked down at the floor, spinning her bracelets about her wrist, thoughtfully. She opened her mouth once, then shut it again before looking back up at him. "I'm sorry about last night."

"Umi?"

"You said no, but I pushed. I shouldn't have. I'm really very sorry Clef." she said, bowing deeply. "If you want me to go home, I can."

The bodice of Umi's dress was far looser than she must have realised, because at that angle he could see too much smooth golden skin. "I don't want you to go home," he said truthfully, flushing and averting his gaze to the ceiling. "But if you wouldn't mind standing up?"

He heard Umi squeak out a soft curse. She was red faced with her arms crossed over her chest when he braved looking at her again.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before," she murmured, almost too softly for him to hear.

"The view is just as distracting this morning as it was last night." He clutched the covers tighter over his lap. "While I _am_ grateful for the tea and the apology, would you mind if we took this conversation to more neutral ground than my bedroom?"

"Oh!" Umi backed away. "Yes, of course. I'll - Um…" She waved toward the door.

"Give me a few minutes to make myself presentable, and I'll meet you in my study?"

She nodded and quickly left the room.

Once she'd gone, Clef fell back into the pillows and dropped his arm over his face, with a groan. Maybe it would be better if he sent her home, then he wouldn't have to have this conversation yet. 

No, he couldn't keep putting it off. Not talking about it would just lead to more and more misunderstanding.

Clef crawled out of bed, and dressed himself in dove-grey warden’s robes. He was half tempted to wear the full drapery of his guru’s robes, but that was a step too far. If he really needed that much protection from her, he would never have invited her to stay. Not to mention, he would likely have meetings this afternoon, and he didn’t like to wear mantle and coronet when he was at home, acting as warden.

He picked up the tea tray and went to face Umi.

She was pacing the floor of his study when he walked in, only stopping when she turned and saw him in the doorway. "I really am sorry, Clef," she repeated, twizzling her bracelets.

He shook his head and walked toward his desk. "No, it's my fault. We’re painfully overdue this conversation." He lodged the tray in a gap and dropped into his chair. "…I just haven't wanted to talk about it, because talking means thinking about it, and then I tend to start… well… panicking?"

"Because it's illegal?" Umi asked, tentatively.

"Three times over." Clef snorted. "Though, after the last meeting more like two and a half times, I suppose - or because you're a child -"

"I am not a child!"

"A _child_ ," he insisted. "Umi, you're the same age as _Aygo_!"

Blinking at him, Umi flopped down onto the sofa, dislodging several of the cushions. "I - really?"

"I think he's actually about half a year older than you, to be honest. And he's grown up faster than usual, with the dissolution of the Pillar System. Elysion is nearly twice your age, and she's _still_ a child!" He waved a hand in her direction. "I know you don't look anything of the sort, but that's not the same, and I can't forget that you're a very small fraction of my age. I wouldn't think much of myself if I could forget, to be honest, no matter what feelings I may have for you!"

Waving a hand back at him, Umi pulled a face. "I try to forget how old _you_ are, because when I do I remember you'd only be alive at home as some sort of sci-fi horror-show villain. Or else just very very dead, and I don't like thinking about that! Clef, my mother had _me_ when she was seventeen. Can't we just - make up some Cephiran equivalent age for me? I'll tell my parents I'm a hundred and seventeen now, and put a lot of candles on my birthday cake." She paused, and bit her lip, and Clef felt a need to brace himself against whatever she was about to come out with. "By every other Cephiran measure, I'm an adult."

"…I don't think I dare ask what logic you're using there."

"It's a year and a day, right? You have to hold an adult form for a year and a day. Well, at home I'd be able to marry at sixteen, so if you take that as being an adult - it was a year from that before I kissed you, so it's a year and a half, now." She said it airily, but she wasn't quite meeting his eyes as she did so.

"Umi—"

"Wait," she said, and frowned at him. "What did you mean, after the last meeting? What happened?"

Now Clef was the one flustered again, but he'd resolved to have this conversation, and this was a part of it. "The first law stopping _this_ -" he waved a hand between them "-was repealed."

Umi got up and poured a cup of tea, handing it to him before pouring herself one and retreating back to the settee to listen. "The first? There's more than one?"

"There are three separate laws binding the posts of Guru, Soru, and Teru. That’s the master mage, the high priest, and the head judge - though you know what Guru means. And Soru. Sorry." He rubbed a hand over his face and sank down into his chair. 

He didn't want to think about how much more time it would take to repeal the next two. 

Umi was watching, silent, so he forced himself on. "They have to be removed from the books one at a time, in order, most recently enacted first. The oldest requires the post holders have no ties which might distract them and their resources from supporting the Pillar. It bans any entanglement with other people; magically, financially, legally, or otherwise. Very few people want a relationship with someone who isn't allowed to support them." The number of things he'd gifted her recently had him teetering close to the edge of that financial support clause, which may have been one of the reasons Aveo cut him off. "There’s a very specific clause in there banning the post holders having children, even one that is adopted."

Umi sat quietly for once. No interjections about how he didn't need to support her, no pointing out that she wasn't expecting children from this. It was her first relationship - he was quite sure of that - so _hopefully_ she didn’t want children from him. She'd absolutely be better off with someone younger if she wanted a family of her own.

"The next one you already guessed, it bans romantic relationships of any kind, to get rid of those few people who would hang around with someone bound-over not to look after them. Banning emotions, as we all know, is impossible and unenforceable, because people cannot actually control their hearts! So they realised that one was useless on its own, but didn't repeal it." He picked up his cup of tea and took a drink before continuing, wrapping his fingers about the warmth of it. "They just added a third law, banning any form of sexual contact, as at least they could police someone's _actions_."

"And you have to remove them... backwards?" Umi asked, leaning forward slightly. "So the first one would be..."

"The first one is no sex. And I put the bill forward for that, months ago, and I've been pushing to keep it on time, so not to delay the others. The final ratification was scheduled the day you arrived; it was the last thing on the agenda, and we were already overtime. Half the room wanted to just put it back on hold for another fortnight." He set the cup down so he could drop his head into his hands. "I insisted we stay to finish it, which is why the meeting overran so long."

"You didn't want to wait?"

Clef hesitated, but made himself look at her. "I thought - I knew it was safest not to. Given, well, everything. And it passed - eventually - but there's a waiting period before any law agreed by the council comes into force; time for those who weren't there to raise any significant issues. So the law has been _repealed_ , but it's still currently in force."

"So, let me get this straight," Umi was on her feet and walking toward him. "You were late home because you were making it legal for us to have sex?"

"It's not legal _yet_." He leaned back in his seat, putting a little more distance between them as she stopped on the other side of his desk. "But given I've already broken the second law into shreds, I wanted at least some progress before I wind up accused of high treason to the Pillar we don't even have anymore!"

Umi’s eyes went wide. "High treason? Clef!"

"Is it any wonder I don't want to think about it?" He threw his hands up in the air. "It's a bunch of stupid laws and stupid treason, but it is still there and still treason!" The words hung in the air for a good long moment. He sighed. "I would much rather not be committing treason the first time I sleep with you."

"So you _do_ want to have sex with me?" 

He blinked at her. "I never said that I didn't." Hadn't that been quite obvious to her last night, when they nearly had?

"You called me a _child_ , Clef!" She pointed out. "I mean, I knew you were a pervert, but really?"

"I am not a pervert!" He flailed his hands at her. There was no forgetting the fact she was so very young, but she was also far beyond the maturity of any Cephiran her age. With a growl, he rubbed his hands over his face. "But maybe you do have a point."

"About you being a dirty old man?" She grinned at him.

"No." He wrinkled his nose up at her. "About your age."

She beamed triumphantly at him. "Why, Clef, are you actually going to concede that I’m an adult?"

"I'm going to accept your reasoning, though I feel it may be flawed," he said slowly, eyeing her with suspicion. "Otherwise, I nearly broke an entirely different set of laws last night."

Umi opened her mouth, presumably to argue, but was cut off by a knock on the door and Kalos peering in.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but Rio's here about the eastern roads?"

Clef turned to the clock. "He's nearly an hour early, what’s happened?"

"He really wants to catch you before the party tonight, far as I can tell. I told him you have a guest, but he’s very… eager." Kalos grinned at both of them. "I can see if Mum can talk to him instead?"

"No, I'll be down in a moment." He shuffled through the papers again and pulled out what he hoped was the correct set of notes.

.*.*.*.

Umi blinked as Clef leapt to his feet and started shuffling around for papers. She hadn't thought he would be doing any work that day. "Weren't you going to give me a tour of the house?"

He came around the desk. "This shouldn't take long?" he said, not sounding completely convincing. He smiled apologetically and gave her the briefest of kisses before he swept out of the room.

Kalos leaned back against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow at her.

The heat of a blush crept over Umi's cheeks, as she tried not to think of how much of that conversation Kalos must have heard and failed. "I - Um -"

"It's potion-making day." Kalos straightened back up, still smiling. "An extra set of hands is always welcome in the kitchens. Unless you have something else to do?"

“I guess not,” Umi said and accepted the invitation. She ended up having a good time listening to the household bicker and gossip good-naturedly with each other. They included her in their conversations but were perfectly happy to just have a new person to share stories with. Which was good, as Clef's one meeting turned into a day of them once word got out he was available. The only time Umi saw him before the evening was when he slipped down to the kitchen to grab something to eat and pull Brisa up to talk with whoever was in his office.

At some point, Aveo looked up at the clock and shot to her feet. "We ought to be getting you ready."

Umi followed her gaze and squinted. She couldn't read the silly thing, so she had no idea why she'd bothered. "I can get dressed by myself."

"Do you know any dressing spells?" Kalos asked.

"No."

"Have you seen what he's gotten you for formal wear?"

Umi hesitated. She’d had a look through the dresses, and she had to admit she wasn’t entirely sure how they went on. Caldina and Presea had helped them into the things they wore for the last ball.

Brisa tugged her up out of her chair, and Umi found herself ushered up to her room with a small entourage. Kalos sat Umi down at her dressing table while Brisa threw open the wardrobes and started pulling out a selection of dresses, tutting under her breath as she looked at each individually.

"Can you step out of what you’re wearing?" Kalos asked, meeting Umi's eyes in the mirror. "Or does it have to come off over your head?"

Umi looked down at herself and had to think about it. The bodice was loose enough it should slide over her hips. "I think I can step out of it."

"Good." Kalos picked up brush and started running it through Umi's hair.

Elysion appeared a few minutes later with two metal-rimmed boxes. She set the smaller one next to Kalos, who opened it. Inside were a multitude of what Umi recognised as Cephiran hair clasps.

"Gold or silver?" Kalos asked, turning back to Brisa.

Umi turned too. Brisa had pulled apart various dresses - the ones that were little more than drapes of fabric with clips - and was rearranging the parts across the bed. "Not sure yet, wasn't your mum supposed to be checking what he was wearing?"

Kalos harrumphed and turned Umi back to the mirror, and started separating her hair into sections. "Your mage probably hasn't even decided what he's wearing tonight."

The door opened at that point, Aveo stepping into the room. "He'll be wearing the dark indigo set."

"Did you lay them out for him?" Brisa laughed.

Aveo merely grinned in reply.

"Is that set accented with gold or silver?" Kalos had started braiding a section of Umi's hair.

"All the Guru robes are gold."

"Oh, right." Brisa picked up a few sets of clasps and set them down.

Again, Kalos turned Umi's head back to the mirror. "Hold still." She restarted the plait above Umi's right temple and explained what she was doing while Aveo started in on the other side of Umi's head, mirroring the braiding. Elysion went over the help Brisa, who - from what Umi could glimpse in the mirror without moving - was trying to decide which fabrics and sashes to pair together.

By the time they were finishing braiding, coiling and clipping all of Umi's long hair up on to her head, she was well beyond wanting to fidget. She wanted to go for a run in the gardens, or challenge Clef to some sort of duel. She hated having to sit that utterly still for so long, she’d managed to argue her way out of Caldina trying to do her hair for any other formal occasions they'd attended in the past. She breathed a sigh of relief when they were finished and she could stand and stretch.

Aveo shooed Brisa and Kalos to the other side of the room as she held up the large lavender-blue swath of subtly patterned fabric like a curtain so Umi could slip out of her sundress without an audience. Umi held up her arms and let Aveo carefully drape the fabric around her, the corners crossing over her chest so the sides hung down either side of her. A translucent, iridescent cloth which shimmered like light on water was wrapped about her over the top of the first layer. Aveo clipped all of it into place with a delicate chain at each shoulder, catching the top corners just under her collarbones and then going back and around to fasten to the sides under her arms. The fabric draped low on her back, exposing more skin than she might have chosen.

Now Brisa returned with a wide sash that faded from deep indigo in the centre to a tone only a shade darker than the under-layer. She wrapped it snugly about Umi's waist a few times before tucking the end up and over so it hung down in front just above her knees. A golden filigree crescent set with blue and purple stones was hung over Umi's chest, attaching to the fabric so it couldn’t come apart where it crossed over, and connecting on to the chain ‘straps’ about her arms so it couldn’t pull down too far. More decorative chains with small stones set in the links hung from it over her arms, and Kalos added three more hanging progressively lower over her bare back, attaching them again to the ones about her shoulders.

Once her clothing was suitably settled, Aveo guided her to the mirror. "There."

If she thought the gowns Caldina had dressed them in at the last new year festival ball had made her feel grown-up, it was nothing compared to this. She felt like one of those grand ladies on one of the costume dramas she enjoyed.

"Jewellery!" Kalos declared grabbing up the other box.

Umi was allowed opinions this time, and agreed on a pair of ear cuffs with jewels that matched the ones decorating her chest, and a selection of bracelets which could have been extra lengths of the chain used to hold her dress up, each with a small central panel worked slightly differently. They all agreed that a necklace would probably fight for attention with the chest-piece, so left her neck bare.

"Good luck," Brisa whispered conspiratorially in her ear as they left her. Umi blushed, and took a long look at herself in the mirror, then turned back to the wardrobes and pulled open her nightgown drawer. The two little potion bottles clinked against one another as they rolled, and her hand trembled as she picked one up.

Better safe than sorry.

.*.*.*.

Clef was still sorting through papers when Umi found him in his study. He kept his head down, busy sorting through the day’s additions when she walked in. "Just give me a few more minutes," he said.

Just as Aveo had said, he was wearing dark indigo with gold accents, and the lower layers were only a shade or two darker than Umi’s dress. He had the heavy stitching and jewels of his Guru mantling about his shoulders still, but the robes were close cut and abbreviated, the cloth woven with a pattern even more intricate than hers. 

Umi stepped further into the room. She eyed the settee and the chairs, but decided sitting down would only encourage Clef to keep at his work longer. Not to mention he wouldn't be able to fully appreciate her outfit if she sat down. When he _did_ look up, Clef's hand stopped half-way to setting a small stack of papers down, his fingers tightening around them and his eyes gone wide.

The long, slow, appraising look down the length of Umi's body sent a thrill through her that made her own breath catch. "Does it look right?" she asked, trying her best to make the question sound innocent, though she also spun around to give him a full look at how she'd been dressed for the evening.

Clef didn't respond, and only let out a startled noise as she turned. When she faced him again, he had wet his lips and was staring at her wordlessly. To know she had that effect on him was - 

"I'll take that as a yes?" She grinned.

"What? Oh yes. You look -" He swallowed and took a deep breath, before looking back down at his desk and smoothing out the now very crumpled papers that had been in his hands a moment ago. "I'll just- I'll be right with you, I just need to… do something with these…"

They ended up on one of the piles littering the edge of the desk, though not before he'd put them on one of the others and then looked bewildered at his own choice. But then he did step away from the desk, and even towards her, and they went out and down the stairs together - with a careful arms-length space between them. Umi would have felt insulted, but Clef was still glancing at her every other step, a flush high on his cheeks.

"How are we even getting there?" she asked, as he led her across the entrance hall to the main doors.

Clef looked back at her, then stopped and laughed - and reached out for her hand, giving up on maintaining the space between them. "I'd planned on a translocation spell. Less fuss, and a lot less time. …I don't think I thought it through very well."

"Oh?"

"I certainly didn't plan on you wearing…" He shook his head, laughing softly again, apparently at himself, as they went out through the main doors. Once outside, he turned, and stepped in breathlessly close. Umi's breath caught as his arms slid around her, his fingers brushing the bare skin of her back.

"You know, I typically just hold hands with Hikaru and Fuu."

"Yes, but you three all know where you're going. I really don't know how to explain Bentley, or even Royce, well enough for you to follow." He pulled her even closer. "Just hold on."

Umi had just enough time to wrap her arms around him before the spell started to flicker through her body; Clef's house and gardens faded away and were replaced by a stone-paved courtyard. The light of the spell fell softly away as the last traces of it shimmered over Umi's skin, raising goosebumps on her arms and kindling a deep heat within her.

Curling in closer and pressing against Clef in a way that drew a soft noise from him, Umi brushed her lips against his ear as she whispered, "When is that waiting period over anyway?"

Clef hands dropped from the bare skin of her back to her hips, pushing her back to break the full body contact. "In a while," he said, his voice uncharacteristically rough. His eyes were dark and his breathing had quickened. "In a very short while."

The way his magic flickered under the fingers tightening in the thin material of her dress left Umi trembling. Biting her lip, she looked around them, trying to behave herself. The courtyard was on the side of a large town square. She'd expected another country house and gardens, not a proper town. "Oh!"

"Welcome to Bentley," Clef said, his fingers trailing down her wrist as he caught her hand in his.

Music and laughter drifted around them. Umi turned to stare up at the building behind them; if Clef's house seemed large, this couldn't even be called a house. "Impressive."

"Ouran would be pleased to hear that. He does love to put on a good show."

They made their way up the path and a short flight of stairs into a large entrance hall with the sort of tall ceilings and nonsensical decorative pillars she'd come to expect in the Castle. Groups of well-dressed people were lingering around the room, talking. Some paused and bowed a head in Clef's direction, while he politely returned the gesture and continued on. Others paid them no attention and kept on talking.

The further they went into the building, the thicker the crowds seemed to become. There were hundreds of people. That was far more than there were members of the Council, where were they all from?

"Rolls and Royce have had a good suten harvest this year," Clef explained, leading them around the edge of the room away from the worst of the crowd. "But I imagine Ouran would have found some other excuse for a party if it weren't so bountiful."

"Suten?"

"It's used to make fabric like this." Clef held up his arm. The light caught the glittering threads and the pattern running through his robes. "They've done well enough this year that we might be able to increase Cephiro's exports. We won't know until it's processed, and that could take several months."

"Is all of this grown here?" Umi asked, looking down at her dress.

"This-" Clef touched the light translucent overlay fabric. "-is arumi. It's grown in Skoda, but the rest is suten. Mazda makes the dye we’re both wearing."

"If it's a party for someone else’s harvest, why are we here?" Umi asked, confused.

"If any Council member hosts a formal event, it’s polite to invite the rest of the Council." Clef pulled a face. “Not showing up can cause problems when we’re back at work, so I have to at least make an appearance, but a lot of business also gets done at these things.” 

"Is that why you don't want to host parties? You'd have to see them all more than every two weeks?"

Clef opened his mouth to answer but stopped when somewhere nearby a strident voice called out a loud greeting and nearly bumped into Umi on the way to meet their friend. Clef stepped closer, guiding her through the throngs with a hand pressed firmly on the small of her back.

"Ah, Master Clef!" A man in a blue-grey tunic approached them. "About the report you sent -"

"I'm not relenting," Clef said, annoyance etched across his face. "I refuse to adopt the new roads until they are completed properly. A few half-cleared tracks will not do."

"Surely you have people in your ward who -"

"It's not a matter of skill." Clef cut him off. "Initial road development is part of central government. Maintenance is ward responsibility. As I see it, there is nothing finished to a point my people can maintain it. If it is a matter of funding, I will cover the cost, but I refuse to organise the project."

The man nodded sheepishly. "I'll get it sorted."

Clef thanked him briskly before continuing on, more quickly this time.

"What was that about?" Umi asked.

With a shake of his head, Clef let out an exasperated sigh. "My first meeting this morning. Out toward Honda, the new roads are nothing but a bit of cleared ground, and they want to tell me that that‘s good enough for Mazda to adopt them."

"Honda?" Umi asked, feeling like she'd heard the name mentioned before, but couldn't recall the context. Possibly something to do with the ward system. They'd talked about the expansion of the land and how they were using strong mages to hold sections of it together, so she roughly understood what being a warden entailed. It had just never occurred to her that Clef was one.

"Out past Mazda, my ward, there is a new peninsula coming together. The council have decided to call the region Honda. It is not nearly stable enough for settlement yet, but it should be by the end of this year or the beginning of the next." He sighed. "You'll hear an awful lot of ward business tonight, I'm sorry. This is more work than pleasure for me."

Clef was right; the next three people to stop and talk wanted to discuss Mazda, and though Clef did manage to pause the conversation long enough to introduce her, that was the extent of her involvement - she didn't understand any of the issues they were so interested in. But the fourth person was one of the mages she'd seen coming out of Clef's study in the castle in a huff once or twice. When they started up an argument about where the Academy should be situated - an argument Umi had had with Clef a good dozen times before she'd made him see sense - Umi jumped in.

"That's a floodplain!"

Only then did the other mage notice her. "I beg your pardon?"

"It's a floodplain," Umi repeated. "One really heavy rain and all the lower floors will be in the river. You actually get weather now, sometimes, you need to plan for it."

"And you are?" They raised an eyebrow.

It took a lot of willpower not to snap when she answered. "Ryuuzaki Umi, Magic Knight of Water."

Clef's hand came up quickly to the bare skin of her back, making her pause with the sudden shiver of magic as he explained, "Umi has heard me talk at length about the academy."

A look crossed that person's face that Umi didn't like, but she shrugged it off as she remembered how she'd explained the concept of a flood plain before. "Hey, Clef." She turned to him. "You have paper and a pen don't you?"

Umi ached from the loss of his touch when he moved, but if she was going to attend the academy, she'd like to do so on dry ground. With a soft glow of light from his ring, Clef handed over a few sheets of paper and a pen.

"Table?"

Clef walked them around the edge of the room to an area near the dance floor where there were a number of waist height tables. Umi slapped the paper down on the nearest empty one, uncapped the pen, and began to draw a rough map of the Castle and surrounding lands.

.*.*.*.

There was an indescribable lightness in Clef's chest as he watched Umi draw such a detailed map from memory. She'd been travelling to and from Cephiro for years, and the Knights had a good view of the south from their bedroom window. But somehow this meant so much more.

He moved in closer as she drew, leaning into her. His hand automatically went to her back, fingers brushing bare skin with an electric charge. She shivered under his touch and leaned into it, flashing a smile at him before turning back to her task.

Umi traced a rough outline of the Academy where Livina was saying it should be then lifted the pen and began to explain storm flooding. It was a topic he had discussed with Umi more than once. He'd brought the problem of the Castle's positioning in the valley to the Council the same week she'd convinced him there was a problem to worry about. When they brushed him off he met with the Guard to adjust the shields to keep water out in the case of a flood, though the Council chamber was on the ground floor and he wouldn’t have been sorry if it got a bit soggy because they'd not listened to reason.

Ferio turned up when Umi was pointing out two locations which would be more suitable. He bid Clef an absent 'good evening' while watching Umi's lesson to the small group of Councilors and guild members who had joined them. Livina had taken out her own pen at some point and started taking notes.

Ferio's voice had an air of forced calm. "Clef, what is Umi doing here?"

Clef dropped his hand from Umi's back. “Explaining how rain works?” he tried, and Ferio just stared at him. Clef shrugged and turned back to Umi so he could get away from that look. "I invited her. _That’s_ not a crime."

Handing over the map to Livina, Umi smiled politely and bid them a good evening, saying she could answer any questions on her next visit. Her hand slipped into Clef's as she turned her attention back to him. "Sorry. I got a little carried away."

"You explain it better than I do," Clef admitted. A soft blush crept across her cheeks as she smiled at him, and oh, how he wanted to kiss her.

"Good evening, Umi," Ferio said, butting in.

Clef tried to drop Umi's hand, but she held firm, smiling. "Hi, Ferio."

"I thought you had school?"

Umi shook her head. "Fuu and Hikaru do, but I'm still on holiday. My classes don't start until next week."

"Is that so?" Ferio raised an eyebrow at Clef.

How much he guessed, Clef wasn't sure. Given Clef hadn't been back at the castle since the Council meeting, there was room for a reasonable amount of speculation about when Umi had arrived. But he was allowed to have friends! Wanting to show her about Mazda didn’t have to mean anything _else_ \- 

And if he wanted Ferio to believe that he really shouldn’t be leaning into Umi’s shoulder like there was no concept of space between them.

Caldina found them before Ferio could say anything else, calling out Umi's name and grabbing her into a tight hug. (Clef tried not to be disappointed when Umi had to let go of his hand as she was pulled away from him.) Caldina repeated Ferio's questions about school and received the same answers, then started flailing over Umi's dress.

"How _did_ she talk you into buying that for her?" Ferio asked.

Clef didn't know how to answer. How could he say she hadn't talked him into anything, he'd bought most of it months ago because the patterns in the fabric reminded him of her, and he thought she'd like it? He just hadn't anticipated just what it would look like draped around her lithe form, and how difficult it would be to keep from staring at her all evening.

Ferio crossed his arms. "You realise the fabric alone is worth more than half my wages for an entire year?"

"Ah." No he hadn't, but that would probably explain the way Caldina was looking at it. He was saved from answering any further questions by their host walking towards them, arms wide in greeting.

"Guru Clef, how wonderful you could make it!" Ouran was dressed in flowing crimson robes that fluttered when he gestured with his arms, as he was prone to do. He was one of the few powerful mages who actually showed their age. His light hair had gone grey in the last century or two. There were deep creases about the corners of his eyes when he smiled. "I hear you have brought a guest this evening."

Clef took the opportunity to sidle away from Ferio and reach out to tug Umi away from Caldina, who promptly shot over to Ferio, probably to start speculating. Clef ignored both of them. "Allow me to introduce Ryuuzaki Umi, the Knight of Water."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Knight. I'm Ouran, warden of Royce. Welcome to my home." Ouran bowed deeply, facing Clef again when he rose again. "May I just say, Guru, you are looking as resplendent as always." He turned to Umi. "And you, my dear, are simply magnificent." He beamed at the both of them. "But what else would I expect of the Guru's companion, especially on an evening such as this?"

There was a blush blooming across Umi's cheeks as she curtsied politely, thanking him for the compliment.

"I know you are not terribly fond of crowds, my dear Guru,” Ouran’s voice was warm and... _inviting_. Clef sighed internally. “If you and your charming companion are not otherwise occupied, may I offer you refreshments and more private entertainment upstairs?"

"Thank you, but no. I have promised Umi a dance this evening, and I intend to keep my promise."

"Perhaps another time then." Ouran smiled and bowed, before turning away.

Umi blinked beside him. "Clef, did he just…?"

"Yes. Yes, he did."

"Huh." Umi cocked her head sideways and watched Ouran disappear back into the crowd. "I guess we are both kind of hot."

Clef snorted and squeezed her hand. Not wanting to fuss with more questions and conversation, especially considering the look Ferio was giving him, he waved at the dance floor. “Would you like to help give some substance to my excuse?”.

“You could just ask me to dance,” Umi grinned at him, and tugged him out onto the floor as a new piece of music started up.

While the move was a convenient way to flee impertinent remarks, it left no escape from Clef's other predicament of the evening. Every hold had him touching Umi's bare skin while he held her close. He was torn between cursing the members of his household who helped her dress or thanking them. Whichever he decided, he had little attention for the dance, and less still for anything else when Umi leant back in his arms, frowning slightly, and said, "Hang on. If he was asking you to go upstairs - Clef, when precisely is this waiting period over?"

"That is— not a topic for a crowded dance floor," he muttered, his cheeks flushing as he looked away. A few seconds later, Umi pulled out of his arms enough to grab hold of his wrist, and haul him towards one of the doors to the gardens.

The music was coming to a close, so they weren't the only people abandoning the floor, but he didn't see anyone else making their way outside with such haste. And once out, they were hardly in private. Extensive though the gardens were, a good number of people had had the same idea as Umi, and were walking arm in arm between the shrubs.

The third time Umi began to speak only to have a group of people saunter out from behind a nearby rockery or tree, she hissed and glared about. "Okay, there has to be somewhere we can be alone at this thing. Or do we need to go find Ouran and take him up on his offer? At least then there'd only be one person listening -"

"I'd really rather not?" Clef put in, weakly. Her dragging him about hadn't done anything to lessen the will to pull her close again, as they'd been on the dance floor; closer still, running his hands over all that bare skin.

Umi tilted her head, looking back at the building. It was lit up from every window, music drifting out to them. "There has to be somewhere. If our host is throwing invitations like that about, then there's absolutely _got_ to be somewhere people can sneak off with each other."

"Well -" He glanced to where the bushes came up against the building, and bit his lip, before checking no one was actually watching them. Umi came along willingly enough when he started walking, and the door to the side corridor was tucked among them just as he remembered, carefully masked from view.

At least half of the curtained niches along the corridor were already closed off, and the sound of the main hall was muffled by the double-doors which made this part of the building decidedly more private. Clef pulled Umi with him into one of the alcoves where the curtains were still stood open and tugged the drapes firmly shut behind them; the sound of the hall cut out as the privacy and silencing spells in the fabric came to life.

.*.*.*.

There was barely enough floor space for them to comfortably stand with any sort of distance between them, and given the spaciousness of the padded bench, Umi was certain that this was not the sort of place for keeping someone at arm's length.

She turned an amused grin on Clef. "What kind of a place is this?"

Clef's face flushed dark and he ran a trembling hand through his hair. "Somewhere to be… private?"

"And how do you know about it?" 

"It's a good place to, uh, read?"

She gave in and laughed. "You run away from parties to read. Of course you do."

"It's quiet!" He flapped a hand at her. "And it's not like it was legal for me to do anything else."

"You never did say when that time limit is up."

Biting his lip, Clef couldn't meet her eyes anymore. "About halfway through your lesson on flooding, actually."

" _Really_?" Two days seemed a little short for a waiting period on something as important as a law, but she wasn't going to delve into that tonight.

Clef shot her a wary look before staring at the curtains. He was going to cut his lip if he kept biting it that hard. He opened his mouth, then shut it again, and he had the same worried expression he'd worn each time he'd said no, it was a bad idea, they shouldn't… But she could feel the flicker of his magic pressing through the air though they weren't even touching, raising goosebumps on her skin.

She knew what that _meant_ , now. And it was _legal_.

Raising on hand, she brushed her fingertips over his cheek and back into his hair, the band of his coronet cool against her hand. He caught a sharp breath and leaned into the touch, eyes falling shut.

"Umi…"

"This morning you said you wanted to, only it was treason. Well, if it's not treason now…"

"I haven't taken anything. If we got carried away - it doesn't even kick in immediately, even if I had, and neither of us have a current protection charm on."

A thrill shuddered through her as she realised they were actually discussing this seriously. "I _did_ take something."

"You have?" Clef blinked at her.

Umi nodded. "I took the first dose today, and there’s still enough days before I go home to finish it." 

His eyes were dark, pupils wide, and it was hard to remember what conversation they were having, but she didn't want him panicking and pushing her away again.

Not now they _could_.

"I haven't heard about a charm. Is that contraception, too?"

Shaking his head, Clef took a breath. "No - it stops illness transmitting. I have no idea if the illnesses in Tokyo are the same as those here, or -"

"Can you cast it?" she asked, cutting him off. "In case we get… enthusiastic."

Another deep breath, and Clef's answer came in a whispered spell, magic rolling over both of them like a breaking wave. Umi swayed into him, gasping, and as soon as she had control of her limbs again, she tilted her head, pressed her mouth to his, and shoved him down onto the bench.

There was no hesitation when she pulled up the hem of her dress and climbed onto the bench with him, knees pressed into the cushions on either side of his hips as she pinned him back against the wall. She thought she had the upper-hand for just as long as it took him to slide a hand up her leg and under her skirt. The mere brush of his fingers sent her trembling, it was everything she had imagined and so much more.

And this time they kissed, and they kissed, and he didn’t stop touching her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love.


	6. In which Ferio and Caldina try to separate them (for their own good, of course)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to Down for the beta read. 
> 
> I know this chapter is a little while coming, but I hope you enjoy it. I am working on this fic for NaNoWriMo, so there should be 50,000 more words added to the whole of the fic by the end of the month, (or at least close to that as I think I've hit 25,000 already) but it is over the WHOLE of the fic, so not necessarily all the next couple chapters. Some of it is toward the end.

Clef slowed his hand, ignoring the faint ache in his wrist in favour of the way Umi was still shuddering against him, breath coming in hot, ragged gasps against his neck. One of her arms was bracing her on the wall behind him, the other was tangled in his hair, his scalp tingling slightly from the pressure as well as the power in her touch. His coronet had fallen off some time ago, bouncing off the cushion and clattering across the floor as he pressed into the caress.

She whimpered and ducked her head into the crook of his neck when he stroked his thumb against her again, drawing a slow circle around the nub of sensitive skin. "I have half a mind to suggest we go home," he whispered, gently sliding his fingers out of her.

She shifted against him, and he could hear the grin in her voice better than he could see it. "Aren't you supposed to be pandering to the politicians, or something like that?"

"I've made my appearance." Clef pressed a soft kiss to her neck. "Ouran knows I was here." With a breathless laugh, Umi's hand slid down the bare skin of his chest and down between them to tug at the catches on his trousers. Clef stilled her with his hand over hers. "Umi - "

"I told you, I've taken something."

"But I haven't." With his clean hand, he cupped her cheek and looked at her. As much as he was enjoying this, he didn't want her to regret it. "The potion I should be taking is more reliable."

"It's fine, Clef. I can handle the consequences." She punctuated each sentence with the click of an unfastened clasp.

He failed to articulate a single word of argument as she reached inside his clothing. The cool touch of her fingers was overwhelming; Clef’s head thumped back against the wall as he let out a low groan. His hips bucked up slightly at the exploratory stroke of her hand along his length. 

Every coherent thought abandoned him as her fingers and magic wrapped around him. When she shifted closer and scraped her teeth across his neck, he nearly came undone there and then. Which would have solved the potions issue, at least.

A few minutes longer and he probably would have, but he didn't get nearly long enough to enjoy Umi's touch. Clef hadn't given much thought to the fact he’d been able to hear the quiet drift of music since his coronet had slid across the floor, and he was only distantly aware of the heavy footsteps and muttering coming closer along the corridor.

Then Ferio’s voice hissed through the curtains, and both of them snapped to attention; "I don't know what you two are doing in there, but I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea."

"Go away, Ferio!" Umi growled.

"I'm not letting you two ruin your reputation, Clef." Ferio snapped. The drapery swayed slightly as he caught hold of it. "You’d better make yourselves decent, I'm coming in on the count of ten."

Umi threw a hateful look over her shoulder when he started counting. She pulled her hand back, with one final wicked touch that made Clef’s head thump back against the wall before she adjusted her underwear and crawled off his lap, her dress falling back over her legs with barely a crease. Leaning back against the side-wall, she crossed her arms and glowered at the curtains.

Clef grumpily attempted to do up his trousers again, which involved standing up and rearranging things that were not quite willing to be told where to go. He'd barely done up half the fastenings when the curtain was yanked aside for a moment and Ferio stormed in, with Clef's coronet in his hand.

"If you two are going to sneak off to have sex, you could at least try being a little more subtle. Like not breaking the silencing charms with _that_!" Ferio threw the headdress at Clef, hitting him hard in the stomach. It bounced onto the bench, and Clef ignored it in favour of getting his clothing done up, trying not to flush guiltily. 

From outside, Caldina’s voice joined in. “Are they dressed yet? I refuse to look at anyone’s prick.”

“Just about,” Ferio reported, as Clef managed to get the last clasp done up again. Caldina slipped in too, glaring at Clef as he summoned a handkerchief to wipe his hand off. The space wasn’t large enough for four people unless they really liked each other - and this was _not_ that kind of situation.

“Really?” Caldina asked Umi, who stuck her tongue out.

Ferio rolled his eyes, and turned back to Clef. "Now get yourself together, _Guru_ , because you're coming back out to talk to people, like you're supposed to be doing."

"Can you just give me a moment," Clef snapped, narrowing his eyes. He was in no fit state to be seen.

Ferio bit out a sharp "fine."

“But you, missy, are coming with me,” Caldina grabbed hold of Umi's arm and tugging her toward the curtain. "Come on."

"Hey!" Umi tried to shake her off.

Clef stopped fighting with his clothing and caught hold of Caldina, who stared him down.

"Stop it. Neither of you are thinking with your heads," Ferio declared. "What you both need is some time apart, to cool off."

Umi shook her head at Clef, and he dropped Caldina's arm. His irritation was quickly winding into fury when Caldina escorted Umi out of the alcove and he heard them heading off down the corridor, Umi grouching all the way.

Ferio tugged the drapes shut properly, so they could talk without being overheard. "You're supposed to be being sociable," he said. "You know, reminding people that you’re a person who deserves proper consideration, not an automaton - getting their support so you can actually go ahead and change those laws? You do remember there are still two to go, right?"

Clef shrugged, dropping back down onto the seat. It wasn't like he was ever all that sociable at these things. "I didn't go read a book."

"That would have been better!" Ferio snapped. "What do you think this looks like?

"It's not illegal." Clef leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He could still feel Umi's fingers in his hair, and the taste of her skin lingered on his tongue. When they got back to the house, all she needed to do was ask and he would be hers for the night, no arguments left. 

While that thought quelled his anger, it did nothing to ease his discomfort.

Ferio was unimpressed. "Yes, it is! You're now allowed to have _meaningless_ sex. You could go upstairs and fuck Ouran, and no one would even care, but Umi…" Ferio sighed. "Clef, everyone - and I _do_ mean _everyone_ \- knows you're attached to her. You're too infatuated for this to be any sort of insignificant fling, and you know it."

"Just as you know it's a bad law, Ferio." Clef said, opening his eyes. He'd been breaking it for so long... You couldn't control someone's heart, and he'd been in love with Umi for - an unwise amount of time. "No one has ever taken it to court and upheld it. They wouldn’t be able to, it’s a _bad law_."

"Are you wanting to give them reason to try?" Ferio waved his hands in frustration. "Spirits, Clef! You realise that I'm on the Council, I should probably be bringing you up on charges, rather than bickering about this with you. You know Cephiro can't handle the expense of that kind litigation right now. Do you have any idea what having one of our leaders - because like it or not, that's what you, Verna, and Torneo are - brought in front of the Judges on charges of treason would do to our international standing? Especially when we're trying to establish good relations with our neighbours after cutting ourselves off for millennia!"

"I don't know, it might look even worse to them that all I did was fall in love with someone and you _prosecuted me_ for it." 

"Which is why we’re changing the laws!" Ferio pressed his palms to his temples as he hissed in a breath. "Can't you just wait five more months? Just long enough that you can legally be in a relationship with her, for Cephiro's sake. And for yours." He turned a pleading look on Clef. “Seriously, some of these people could make life exceptionally hard for you if they think you’re - flouting the rules right in front of them.”

He scrubbed a hand back through his hair. "I've waited, Ferio."

"Oh yes, a whole, what, four months."

"Ten months," Clef muttered. It had been at least that long since he realised he ought to start doing something about those stupid laws. Six since she'd kissed him and made him realise he needed to be speeding up the process, because Umi wasn't the most patient person he'd ever known. (And she was getting very good at making him forget his own resolve to wait, as she'd proved last night. And again not half an hour ago.)

"Wow, ten whole months." Ferio looked less than impressed by this. "How old are you? Thirty?"

Clef rolled his eyes again. Though he couldn't argue that he wasn't behaving a bit like an impatient child himself.

"What happened to 'They're too young' or 'They're still children despite what they look like', huh?" Ferio demanded. "I mean, how many times have you told me that?"

"Who said I was telling you off? Did it ever occur to you I was talking to myself as much as to you? That maybe I started noticing her after I looked like this?" Clef groaned inwardly. It wasn’t even close to a respectable excuse. He’d been more than a little ashamed with himself for finding someone so young so alluring, but putting space between them hadn’t helped - he’d tried! 

It especially didn’t work when Umi had realised why he was avoiding her and decided to do something about it.

"That doesn't change the fact she's still only seventeen years old!"

"She's perfectly capable of making her own decisions!" Clef stood up and swept past Ferio. "And I am finished with this conversation."

.*.*.*.

Just because Umi felt like a naughty child being led away from mischief, didn't mean she had to act like one, and yet that was exactly what she was doing. She dropped into the first empty chair at the table Caldina led her to, still sulking.

"Umi?" Ascot looked over at her in surprise from a couple of chairs along.

"Hi, Ascot." Umi sighed. She was still wound up and practically aching, and Ascot was not the person she needed right then. Especially since he'd admitted recently he really wasn't interested in doing that kind of thing with anyone. (Apart from hugs. And he was really good at hugs, but that wasn't what she was interested in, and _he_ wasn't who she was interested in, and she really wanted to throw something at Caldina.)

"I didn't know you were going to be here."

"Well, I came with Clef, but Ferio's-" she glared at Caldina "-taken him away."

Caldina waved a graceful hand through the air, magic spilling from it - some form of privacy shield, Umi guessed. The smooth motion of her hand was completely at odds with the jagged frown on her face. "Missy, I don't know what that dirty old man said to get you back there, but I promise you he didn't have good intentions."

"Who said he was the one with intentions," Umi said, muttering a swift 'Thank you' to Ascot for the drink he snagged from a passing waiter and handed her, moving across to the chair beside hers. "And it seemed pretty good to me."

"Oh, Umi. _No_." Caldina shook her head. "You didn't actually - "

"Well, we certainly weren't _talking_ back there." Umi snapped. She was too frustrated to be properly embarrassed, despite Ascot squeaking slightly and turning pink beside her.

"He's so - so - _old_!" Caldina waved her hands.

"So? Dirty old men need love too!"

"Umi, he's too old for you!" Caldina wailed, though it didn't seem all that loud over the din of the music. "He's practically dead!"

"Actually," Ascot said, setting down his drink. "It's not unusual for someone of the Guru's will-power to make it close to 1500 years old. So, he's probably only middle-aged."

Caldina snapped around to glare at him. "That's not helping, Ascot!"

"Isn't it?" Ascot shrugged, unworried. "I just don't see what the problem is."

"He's just - "

"Is this about Umi, or is this still about the Guru dragging out the last Council meeting?" Ascot asked, before leaning over to Umi and lowering his voice. "LaFarga's on nightshift this fortnight." He turned back to Caldina. “That was two days ago, anyway. I know LaFarga’s been busy, but he’s not been _that_ busy.”

"Well, that old geezer shouldn't have been so worried about getting his little rod wet that he kept everyone there for an extra _five hours_!"

"Hey!" Umi slammed her glass down. "That is not - "

Caldina cut her off with a declaration of "He'll die, and you'll get nothing, you know!"

"I don't want his money!" Umi pushing her chair back from the table. She’d had quite enough of this. "I don't know what you have against Clef, but it's your problem, not mine."

"You're staying right here, Missy!" Caldina was on her feet, grabbing hold of Umi's arm before she'd had a chance to even take a step away from the table. "This ain't a game, you know, going around on his arm wearing things like _that_. It looks like he bought you. Like he's paid you for your company tonight. That you’re the pretty, young thing he’s decided to end his celibacy with."

"It was a gift," Umi growled. How dare she insinuate Clef would have expectations like that. “And what’s wrong with him liking me when you know perfectly well that I like him?”

"Umi, just because he bought you pretty things, doesn't mean you have to sleep with him." The concern in Caldina's voice was infuriating. What kind of man did she think Clef was?

"Did it ever occur to you that I might want to sleep with him? It’s taken me six months to get this far, and then you and Ferio go and interrupt _just_ as I was about to get him right where I want him!" Umi shrugged Caldina's hand off her, but Ascot was on his feet stopping her from walking away just yet.

"I don't see why they can't be together if they want to." Ascot looked pointedly at Caldina while guiding Umi back into her chair. His tone softened when he sat down beside her. "But Umi, Caldina is right, though. You can't be _together_ -together right now. He's not allowed. Not yet, at least."

"It's not like sex is going to change what we are already." Umi sighed. What they were was all sorts of complicated.

Caldina set a glass down in front of her like a peace offering. "Then maybe it makes more sense to wait?"

Umi took a sip; it lay sharp on her tongue and warm in her throat. She coughed as she pulled the glass away from her lips in surprise. "What is this?"

Caldina had just given her alcohol!

"If you're old enough to fuck the Guru, you're old enough to drink."

.*.*.*.

Clef had only gotten so far as the washroom to clean his hands (a handkerchief could only do so much) before Ferio caught up with him.

"Now are you going to get any work done or do I need-"

"I have been working!” Clef declared as he stomped back out into the corridor - not at all like a child on the brink of a tantrum, of course. “Just because Umi and I were having a private conversation doesn't mean I haven't been speaking to anyone else."

"Oh yes, private _conversations_ always involve undoing your trousers."

"Maybe you just haven't had the right kind of conversations." Clef kept walking and looking into all the rooms he passed, as he tried to spot Caldina, and therefore find Umi.

He had just seen the bright flash of Caldina's hair before catching sight of Umi sat with Ascot in the first dining room. Shrugging off Ferio, Clef went to join her, but was stopped by two other council members.

"Ah! Guru, there you are!" Dokker, the Warden for Dacia which bordered Mazda to the south, appeared at his elbow, followed closely by Stanza, Warden of Datsun.

"We were just discussing the appointments for Honda and Eunos," Stanza added. “Could we get your opinion, too?”

Between them and Ferio’s anxious hovering, Clef found himself being guided into the second dining room. He sighed. It was only one meal, he'd see her when he was finished. It couldn't take more than an hour. She wouldn't be going home that evening or the following day, so he shouldn't allow himself to get too agitated about it.

"What about the appointments?" Clef sat down and reached for the jug of fruit juice on the table. "If it's about my nomination, I put Vezel up weeks ago."

Technically, he'd only put Vezel up for Eunos; since he was also a warden, nominating someone for the ward neighbouring his could be seen as exerting undue influence But with both Eunos and Honda pulling together at about the same time, all the current nominations were being considered for both regions by the committee. The best fit for the ward would be the one chosen. Or rather, the one the region chose.

"She's not passed her exams yet," Stanza pointed out, voice full of concern. “From the last reports, there’s not much time left, and I heard there aren’t too many reasonable candidates being put forward.”

"They're holding the exams this week," Clef said. He'd had the same argument from the rest of the guild when he'd put Vezel forward. She was strong, and skilled - she was one of the mages who had volunteered to help him hold together the castle after Emeraude’s death, though she’d had very little training at the time. Holding a ward wasn’t far different. With experience like that, her formal qualifications didn’t worry him very much. "If for some very unlikely reason she doesn't pass them, there have been a few good nominations from the Guild. It's out of my hands now."

Dokker took a bite of the piece of pawasute he was holding and said, "I hear Sandero put Yanmar forward."

Clef shrugged. It wasn't his problem. He didn't care. Well, he did care about who got it, but not in the same way they did - which was more about how they would vote in Council than anything else. He'd skimmed the list, and approved of the choices as far as it came to ability to hold a Ward. Yes, there were some people he thought better suited for the roles, but he wasn't opposed to anyone in particular.

He let them carry on speculating while he ate, only joining the conversation when anyone asked him a question directly. Even then, Ferio kept having to jab him with an elbow. His mind wasn't on the room he was in.

Toward the end of the meal, talk shifted to some of the academy discussions. Stanza raised an eyebrow at Clef when his head came up at that. "Yeah, Livina said that - what's her name? Oh, you know, the Knight of Water. Oomeh?"

"Umi," Clef corrected. "Her name is Ryuuzaki Umi."

"Oh yeah, I heard you brought her with you." Stanza grinned at him. "I hadn't realise how pretty she was before this evening. The rumours make more sense now."

Dokker hummed in agreement around a mouthful of food. Clef didn’t dare ask what the rumours even were, but he was pretty sure Ferio would tell him later. They went on to talk about the whole floodplain issue yet again.

Clef set down his cup and pushed his chair away from the table. He was more than finished explaining weather phenomena and water run off. He was even more done with being sociable with people who were more work colleagues than friends. "Good evening, everyone. I'll see you next week."

Stanza and Dokker happily waved him off, calling for him to ‘have fun!’. He was glad he couldn’t see Ferio’s expression at that particular send-off.

.*.*.*.

Umi was nursing her drink more slowly this time. It tasted so nice, she didn't want to finish it immediately like she had the last couple. It was light and fruity and had bubbles that tickled her nose, so very much nicer than whatever it was that Caldina had given her at first. She'd finished that one and was on her second glass of this. Or was it her third glass?

It went nicely with the end of her meal. She set down the drink and nibbled on a bit of pastry as she watched couples dancing in the other room, moving in time with the music.

"Ascot could take you out on the floor, if you want," Caldina suggested. "Right, Ascot?"

Ascot's eyes went so wide and startled at that offer that Umi couldn't help but laugh. He'd get flustered enough when Caldina dragged him to the dance practice sessions, Umi couldn't imagine how he'd be actually dancing in public. "That's okay. I'll get Clef to dance again before we leave."

She picked up her drink and started sipping it again, still swaying with the melody as she watched the door for Clef. He was bound to escape Ferio soon. Almost everyone around them had finished eating, so unless he had gotten into some debate about some work thing, he would be through looking for her at any moment, she was sure of it. Because if she was still wanting him this badly, he had to be feeling something too.

"I still don't know what you even see in that guy," Caldina complained.

Umi could have argued that Clef was trustworthy and honest, and all manner of his better qualities, but none of that came to mind first. "Have you seen how hot he is?"

"I hate myself for saying this, but attractiveness is not a basis for a long-lasting relationship."

"But I can't be in a relationship with him, remember?" Umi finished her drink and set down the glass. "So it doesn't matter if the basis is long-lasting or not, does it. I want him, and I’m going to have him. I don't care whether or not you think it's a good idea."

"Umi, no." Caldina pleaded, and looked over at Ascot. "Help me out here."

"You know I agree with Umi.” He smiled, a light blush colouring his cheeks. ”The Guru is really attractive."

"Not you too! Next thing I know, you'll be telling me that you're gonna be spending the night with him."

Umi started giggling. "You’d have to share. And what would you do with him, anyway?" 

"I don't know," Ascot just shrugged. "He might like hugs."

Dissolving into a proper fit of giggles at the thought of Ascot hugging Clef all night long - not that Clef didn’t seem to need a good embrace or two - Umi didn’t even hear the rustle of robes or the footsteps approaching the table before Clef was behind her, his voice making her jump in surprise.

"I do, actually,” Clef said. “Like hugs, I mean.”

Ascot squeaked beside her. She could see his ears going pink out of the corner of her eyes. 

Clef rested his hands lightly on Umi’s shoulders, and she tilted her head back to look up at him, only to find herself staring at the sharp lines of his face and wondering how he could look so beautiful. "You're so pretty. Did you know that?"

Clef let out a heavy sigh. "Are you drunk?"

"No." Umi pressed her hands to her cheeks. They were really hot, and the room was a little… dizzying. "Maybe?" She squinted at her glass and the little bit of pink the bottom of it. How many _had_ she had? It couldn't have been that many. "Probably only a little."

"If you hang around a little while longer,” Caldina laughed, “we'll help you get her back to the castle."

"What, so you can get her even more wasted?" Clef groused.

"But I don't want to go back to the _castle_." Umi pulled a face at Caldina. It wasn’t that she disliked her room there, it was just the last place she wanted to be.

"Well, you ain't going back to Tokyo tonight."

"No. I'm going back to Clef's house." She turned to look back up at Clef. He was just so gorgeous, she stared at the line of his jaw. She wanted to run her tongue along it, and bite his ear when she reached the end. He was supposed to be taking her back with him and they were going to pick up where they left off a few hours ago. "I’m still going home with you, right?" Home with Clef to his house. It was a nice house. She liked it, even though she still hadn't seen much of it. "You still owe me a tour. I haven't seen much beyond our bedrooms, you know."

She wanted to see more of his bedroom. Well, more of him really. She'd touched him, but she hadn't really seen him. Soon. They'd be back soon. Then she could touch him again.

More importantly, he could touch her.

.*.*.*.

Clef hissed in a breath as two stares turned on him. Now they thought he'd gone and ignored the waiting period completely. Fantastic. "You have seen more than just your bedroom, Umi. You've seen the grounds, the kitchen and little dining room."

"Oh! There's also the ballroom that you've filled with books!" Umi happily added. "It would be a nice ballroom, if it didn't have all the books everywhere."

Ascot snorted a laugh at that, flushing harder.

"My study - " Clef started, not sure where he was going with that, and then regretting mentioning it as Umi's mind leapt exactly where his had gone the moment he uttered the words - Umi sat across his lap, dress around her waist, leaning into his touch like it was all she wanted in this world.

"That settee's really comfy!" Umi grinned, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I've seen Aveo's office too, you know, when she gave me the potions." She turned to Caldina and laughed. "I told you I'd be safe. I've had potions."

Yeah, that was helping the whole not letting it look like they'd slept together sooner than they should have thing.

"Well, a potion, not more than one," Umi unhelpfully continued. "Just the first dose."

Caldina blinked at that and looked from Umi to Clef then back to Umi. "How long are you supposed to be staying at this geezer’s house, then?"

"Oh, just the week, then I have to go home." She pulled another face. "I've got school next week, and I haven't even finished my summer homework yet."

"Come on, Umi" Clef tugged her out of the chair. "It's time I got you to bed."

"I like the sound of that," Umi purred, leaning into his side and wetting her lips. "Yours or mine?"

"To sleep!" he snapped, pulling her with him toward the front of the house, while she made a loud sound of disappointment.

Caldina was on his heels moments later. "Where do you think you're taking her?"

"We've already had this conversation. I'm taking her home with me, so she can sleep off whatever it is that you've given her."

"I don't think - "

"Don't even try me, Caldina." He dropped Umi's hand and whirled around. "I left with her, and I am going back with her." He took in a long deep breath before quietly finishing. "If I don't return with her, my household will be rather upset with me, as they’re expecting her company for a few more days yet."

"Your - household?" Caldina blinked at him. "You've introduced Umi to your household?"

"Of course I have! She's my guest. Honestly, what sort of person do you think I am?" Clef flailed at her. "I’m not keeping her in a bedroom!"

"It sure sounded like you were!"

"We haven’t even - look, if you’re so concerned about what I may or may not be doing with Umi, you’re welcome to come with us. I have plenty of guest rooms."

"I'm not coming home with you!" Caldina a pulled a face. "LaFarga's off shift in - "

They both turned when Ascot rushed past them calling, "Umi! No!"

In the short amount of time Clef had been arguing with Caldina, Umi had wandered out the front door and down the steps to the fountain in the courtyard. Not just to admire it either. Ascot was trying to coax her away from the water that she was pulling into the air and swirling around the ornament that hung above the surface of the top-most pool of water.

"This is your fault," Clef muttered to Caldina as he stalked down the steps.

He could see the spell wavering and cracking about the edges, so he tried to throw a shield about Umi before it collapsed, but he was too late. The water sprayed out in every direction, drenching Umi and Ascot completely. Umi promptly cracked up, dancing in circles, and if that dress was distracting before, that was nothing compared to the way those thin layers clung to her skin then.

Clef swept across the path, tugged off his outer robe and threw it around Umi's shoulders.

"As I said, I'm taking her home!" With an arm wrapped around her waist, Clef pulled Umi out through the gate and spun them away through the air.

.*.*.*.

Mazda was quiet and still as they arrived. Umi wouldn't stop giggling while he led her into the house. She leaned against Clef's arm, burying her face in his shoulder to stifle herself when he shushed her, mindful of the people asleep upstairs. She had both hands pressed to her mouth when they reached the top of the stairs and burst out laughing the moment he closed her bedroom door behind them.

"It just went whoosh!" She threw her arms out and cackled more.

"Yes. Yes, it did," Clef agreed, guiding her to the chair of her dressing table.

Once she was sat down, he picked up the jug and took it into the en-suite for water, returning to the room with it and a towel. When he came back, Umi was happily tugging water out of her dress and making it dance across the surface of the dressing table, his robe already shrugged off over the chair. When she caught sight of the water jug in the mirror, her eyes lit up and Clef cursed internally.

Still, she ought to drink some water before she went to sleep.

Clef cast a shield over the jug when Umi started trying to grab hold of the water before he'd made it across the room. "You can play with _that_ water, after you drink this," he said, with a nod at the gleaming ball hovering above her hand. She seemed to be holding it better than the entire fountain had gone, but he still watched warily as he poured a glass and handed it to her.

Umi stared into the glass concentrating on it and he put his hand over the top before it could slosh over the side.

"Drink it. Don't play with it."

"You're no fun," Umi complained, but obediently drank when he let go.

While Umi was drinking her glass of water, the ball still spinning carelessly over her free hand, Clef gently started to dry off her neck with the towel. Umi left out a soft sigh and arched her back as he did so. Clef concentrated on drying her off, and tried his best to ignore any other thoughts that might be trying to creep in as she moved under his touch.

Her hair was very damp and still pinned to the top of her head. It would probably be best to get that down and dried off before he put her to bed. Draping the towel over her shoulders, he unfastened the first clasp.

Umi set down her glass and splashed her ball of water into it then reached up to help, but just kept fumbling with each clasp he was working on making it all but impossible to unfasten any of them. He had to keep brushing her hands away to make any progress. Despite that, she reached up and took hold of his wrist. Turning, she tugged him down to her.

Clef let her kiss him once quickly on the lips then he kissed her gently on the forehead and turned her back around. "Let me finish."

"But I want to kiss you."

"Later." He pulled another clip out and let the coil of hair drop loose over her shoulder. "We need to get your hair down and dry before you sleep."

"I can kiss you with it up. I have. I've done more than kiss you with it up like this."

"I know you have. I was there, remember?"

Umi hummed happily in agreement. "You were. It was nice. You're nice."

Clef sighed. "You're drunk."

"Only a little bit." She made a pinching motion with her fingers, then looked up at his reflection in her dressing table mirror. "I really like you, Clef." She paused - perhaps to think it over - before leaning back to look up at him properly. "You know, you're not as grumpy as you say you are."

Clef smiled fondly at her, stroking her cheek. "No, I'm worse."

A brilliant smile curled across her mouth. Her eyes sparkled and then she giggled up at him, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Kissing her forehead again, he tilted her head back down so he could pull the last two clasps out. "Let me finish so we can get you changed for bed. You don't want to sleep in that dress."

When he reached for the comb, she clumsily grabbed hold of his robes and tugged him back down so she could catch his mouth with hers. He managed to pull away after a brief distracted moment and began to work his way through her hair, smoothing out any tangles and trying his best to ignore the way Umi sighed with pleasure at each stroke.

After running his fingers through her hair with a warm drying spell, he braided her hair back into a plait and tied it off with a small length of ribbon, before going to find her something to sleep in. When he asked where to find her nightclothes, all he got was a vaguely waved hand and "the drawer," as his answers.

There were multiple drawers, and it took a few tries to find the right one. When he did, there was a little tink of glass as a bottle rolled along the bottom. He sighed. That was _not_ how you store potions; they ought to remain upright. He picked up phial and reached over to set it on the dressing table.

Clef's fingers had just closed over the first nightgown when he heard the soft flutter and clink of fabric and jewellery hitting the floor. When he turned around, Umi was standing in front of him wearing nothing but the underwear she was struggling to wriggle out of. She managed to get it past her knees but failed to get it any further as she kept nearly falling over anytime she lifted her foot.

"I think that can stay on," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her while carefully looking at anything but her.

"No, it's all wet." Umi complained. "And not even in a good way anymore."

Mentally cursing Caldina and Ferio, and himself for good measure, Clef retrieved the towel and wrapped it around her, helping dry her off by rubbing _over_ the fabric in spite of her attempts to worm out of it. And as soon as he let go to pick up the nightdress, she attempted to proposition him again, plastering her naked body against him as she slid her hands into his shirt. 

He took a deep breath and reminded her that she was _very drunk_ and that was most certainly not going to happen. 

By the time he actually got her safely into the clothing and tucked into bed, he wasn't sure how many times he'd had to pry her hands out of his clothing and promise her that they could ‘do that tomorrow’, because it was nearly a continuous refrain.

He did let her have one more gentle kiss - which he ended abruptly when she tried to tug him down into bed with her - before he bid her a final goodnight and left her to sleep alone.

Leaning back against the outside of her bedroom door, Clef let out a soft laugh. This was not how he had expected to spend the evening. He hesitated a moment, staring at the door of his own bedroom, before changing his mind and heading downstairs

It was definitely getting late. No one was up and about in the downstairs sitting rooms or the kitchen when he walked through and stepped up into the calm, quiet wing that Aveo had claimed for herself. Even though they weren’t exactly public rooms, everyone in the house was allowed as far as her study for the potions cabinet.

With a small ball of magic clutched in his hand for light, he crept through the corridor like a naughty child sneaking sweets. It wasn't like he wouldn't be found out - he could feel the soft hum of the monitoring spell on the doorway when he walked into her office - but what he was doing was between him and Umi, no one else.

He opened the little cabinet and rolled his eyes at the note pinned inside the door, addressed to him and reminding him which was the long-term potion he was after. He crumpled the note and tossed it in the bin before tucking a few little phials into his pocket and making his way back to his own bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. All feedback is loved!


	7. In which Umi finally gets her way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to Down! You are a wonderful beta reader, and this story shines so much better with your help!

It took a good long shower for Umi to feel almost human the next morning. Wrapped in her towel, she padded across the dark bedroom to the wardrobe. She'd not turned on a light or opened the curtains because of her headache, and the knock on the door made her wince.

"Come in," she said, hopefully making enough noise to be heard. Her voice was far too loud inside her own head, but she wasn’t sure that translated to more than a thin whisper.

She wasn't sure who she expected, but it was Clef who opened the door, carrying a small breakfast tray. 

"I brought something for your head." His eyes skated down over the towel and her bare legs, and he swallowed, a blush barely visible in the low light. "I'll just leave this - "

"You can stay, Clef." She didn't want to chase him out. Definitely not after the way he'd touched her last night - she blushed too at the desire that flooded through her at that memory. 

Thinking as quickly as her hungover brain could manage, she picked up her little white dress from the previous day and wriggled it on over her head, letting the towel drop once she was covered. With determination, she walked calmly over to the bed and sat down, patting the space beside her.

Clef slowly came in, shutting the door behind him. He sat down a little further away than she’d suggested, carefully placing the tray between them before picking up a steaming mug and handing it to her. "For your head."

"Thank you." Umi took it gratefully. Her head was throbbing, and the world was trying its best to spin from time to time. She hadn't intended to get so drunk ever again. The first time had been at one of the parties her parents took her along to where she'd ended up with the other young people - many of them her friends for years - in another part of the house. "I haven't been this hungover since Huki broke out the shochu last winter."

"Was that when you kissed him?" Clef raised an eyebrow at her, and Umi nearly choked on her drink. She'd forgotten telling him about that. "Or was it someone else you were flailing at me about?" He picked up a piece of flatbread off the tray and took a bite.

Umi hadn't exactly planned to confide in Clef about making out with her friend, but when he’d asked her what was wrong she’d let everything out. "Yeah, that was Huki.” Umi drank more of her tea, not looking at him. 

Just breathing in the steam had started unwinding the knots in her head. It was a strong herbal infusion, with a lingering taste of something rather like ginger. She'd wondered if there was some sort of magic cure or treatment for hangovers. While this did seem to be easing the headache and the upset stomach, she wasn't sure it was going to be a perfect cure-all.

"The way you told it, it sounded like you'd only had a drink or two, not that you were drunk at the time," Clef said, and there was something in his voice that she couldn’t quite read, but it made her flush with embarrassment.

"We'd been running out of juice to mix with it, so the drinks were a bit stronger than most of us realised.” She pulled a face at him. “And half the drinking was after that happened. What does it matter now? That was nearly eight months ago."

"I still have no idea why you asked _me_ for advice. I haven't had a romantic relationship in over four hundred years, why would I have had any idea what to do?" Clef grumbled, though he’d been the one person who gave her straightforward advice; he told her if she didn't want to kiss Huki again, she didn't have to. 

In the end, she hadn't had to worry about Huki. When they finally talked about it, he admitted that he liked someone else, too, and was just as frustrated as Umi that he couldn't be with them. They’d ended up closer friends than before - but with no more kissing.

"You're _old_. You must have had a few kisses you regret." Umi set down her empty cup. "And don't give me any of that 'it's a learning experience' crap."

"Well, what did you learn? Because if it was 'don't get drunk' I think you failed to apply that knowledge last night."

"It's not my fault they kept filling my glass!"

"You could have switched to something else. There are always jugs of water or juice on the table." He didn’t sound judgemental as he said it, just a little exasperated. As Umi had a vague memory of exploding a fountain and then trying to get inside his clothes, repeatedly, she couldn’t have blamed him for feeling a lot more strongly about it. 

Umi picked up one of the flatbreads with her free hand and nibbled it tentatively. It was rich with the flavour of the cheese-fruit and herbs. "Oh! This is nice."

"It's something I like after a late night." 

Umi stared at him. "I didn't think you drank?"

"Not much, anymore," He smiled, ruefully. "But it did take me a while to work out that intoxication can lead to, well, explosions."

"What sort of explosions?" Umi grinned at him over her bit of bread. "Do you have stories of a rebellious youth?"

"Nothing that exciting." He rolled his eyes when she pouted at him and waved at the jug on her dressing table. "I should get you another glass of water too. Don’t drink that, I’m pretty sure you dropped the fountain-water in it."

Umi followed his gesture only to realise Clef's robe was draped over the back of the chair, under her dress. Her hazy memories of coming back to her room last night were of kissing Clef, taking off her clothes, and dragging him into bed with her. Everything else was more _gone_ than a little fuzzy. She didn't think Clef would have let them do anything, even if she had been... enthusiastic. But how far had she managed to get?

Wiping her hands with a folded cloth from the tray, Umi turned to Clef as he came back with a fresh glass. "When we got back, we didn't actually have sex, did we?"

"No, we didn't." Clef smiled and shook his head. "Despite your best efforts to undress me."

"I doubt they were my best efforts." Umi took the glass from him and pulled a face at it.

"Darling, as sloshed as you were last night, I don't think you could have tried any harder unless you actually pinned me down on the bed." He sat back down beside her, cheeks getting a touch brighter. "You may have had a chance of managing it then."

Umi sat up straighter and stared at him. Was he giving her tips on how to seduce him? And since when did he call her 'darling'? She bit her lip, watching him carefully. "Do you _want_ me to pin you to the bed?"

His face went so red it looked painful, but he didn’t say no.

Picking up where they left off had half been on her mind when she asked him to come in, but she hadn’t expected him to be inclined to, especially after witnessing her drunken antics.

"Umi…" he said slowly.

"I know. Potions, consequences, etcetera…" She waved all of that off, they’d had that conversation. "I already said that I'm willing to accept the risks, Clef. Do you want to have sex with me or not?"

The edges of his lips curled up. "I believe I answered this question yesterday."

"Yeah, but you might have changed your mind. And anyway, just because you said you wanted to then doesn't mean you want to do it now." Setting down her glass Umi pushed the tray up the bed and out of the way as she slid over to him. “I do. So you’re clear on that-” 

Clef met her halfway, turning towards her. Their mouths met in an electric kiss as she tangled her fingers in his hair. The spark sent a shiver down her spine and she wormed her way closer still.

Clef pulled back with a soft gasp for air. "They’ll never let me live it down if we break any of the crockery," he murmured, his expression apologetic as he set the tray carefully on the floor. Once it was safely out of the way, he pulled her close and kissed her again. His hands slid around her and guided her back into his lap, exactly where she’d been maybe twelve hours ago.

It seemed she wasn't the only one wanting to finish what they started last night.

Now better practiced, Umi undid the fastenings of his shirt and shoved it roughly off his shoulders until he had to drag his hands away from her to shrug it off completely. She ran her hands over the smooth skin that bared, tugging the sharp crackle of his magic along with hers. 

He hissed in a breath and shifted beneath her. His hands smoothed over her back, sending an electric wave up across her skin and giving her goosebumps. Those fingers were ticklishly light over her ribs before coming to rest on her chest, where he drew deliberate circles around her nipples through the thin fabric of her dress. Umi arched into his touch while grinding against the growing firmness of his arousal.

She wanted him. _Now_.

In a rush, she yanked open the front of his trousers. Her hand was only slightly more gentle when she reached between them to touch him, wrapping her fingers around his length.

Clef hissed in a sharp shuddering breath. "Umi - "

She shifted her hips. If she just knelt up a little, she could -

But she didn't get a chance. In one surprisingly smooth move, Clef shifted her up and rolled the both of them over, so he was the one pinning her to the bed. "Do you possess any patience at all?" he asked.

"Maybe I don't want to be patient," Umi snapped, squirming against him, trying to work out the best way to lever him back over so she was in control.

With one hand pressing Umi's hands above her head on the mattress, Clef slid the other hand under the hem of her dress. His touch was achingly slow as he stroked between her legs. If he was going to touch her, he needed to _touch her_ , not tease her.

"Curse you, Clef," she growled. "I want you inside me already."

“Alright.” He slid his fingers further, pressing one in. She bit off a sharp cry and lifted her hips for more of that touch. 

The flash of magic felt so good, but it still wasn't what she wanted. 

"You can do that sort of shit later." Wrenching her hands free, Umi yanked his hand away and knocked him sideways with her legs before she shoved him back onto the bed and climbed on top of him. She held one of his hands, tangling their fingers together as she took hold of him with the other and lifted herself up.

Clef stared at her, eyes dark. He bit his lip as she sank slowly down. The pulse of magic that ricocheted through them was like nothing she'd experienced before; both of them gasped as her hips neared his.

Clef wrapped his arms around her and drew her down closer. He rocked his hips slowly - motion small enough it was a question - and she moved to answer him. They picked up speed, rhythm faltering more and more as Umi's impatience with positioning and finding the right movement grew. This was all so very new and different, not at all the same as when she was by herself.

She dragged her teeth across his neck and he cried out, bucking up. Magic surged between them, sparks arcing off bare skin and sending a glorious shiver through her. So she did it again, and again, until he called out her name in a broken wail and held on as if for dear life, his hips jolting with an even sharper flare of static.

She swore incoherently, clinging to his shoulders and rocking desperately. Despite the pulse of electricity, it was the scrape of his fingernails over the skin of her back that finally broke her, the flood of sensation crashing over her like a tidal wave.

.*.*.*.

Clef shifted slightly beneath Umi as her breath started to tickle his ear. He stroked her back absently, mind drifting across the reasons this had been unwise.

One week of intimacy was already probably crossing the line into ‘relationship’ territory, but even if he put a stop to things when Umi went back home, it wasn’t going to stop him breaking the second law. It never had. He’d been in breach of it for months, and he refused to fret about emotions he couldn’t control. 

Putting things on hold would make it less _obvious_. He was really, really struggling to care about that.

Though Ferio was right that actually getting called into court on it would be an incredible nuisance. Well, at least it was his predicament, not Umi's. He was the one bound under the law.

But, honestly, if he was already breaking it, what difference did it make if he did so more decisively? It was a pointless, impossible law. Everything which had been wrong about the Pillar system rolled into a few poisonous statutes still lurking in the books. Anyone who thought otherwise was someone he would be _happy_ to argue with.

The more he thought about how little he cared, the closer he came to laughing. This certainly wasn't how he’d imagined their first time together. Then again, he wasn't the only one involved in this relationship. As Umi had been pushing him for months now, he supposed it was a given she had a few ideas of her own.

"Was that what you wanted?" he asked, amusement colouring his voice.

"Yeah." Umi’s breath was warm on his face, and she turned to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

Perhaps it was the way she thanked him like he'd given her some sort of gift, or the general absurdity of the situation. Either way, Clef burst out laughing.

Umi pushed herself upright - still straddling him - and looked down with a slightly confused expression. "What?"

"It's nothing?" He shook his head, still chuckling.

Her eyebrows narrowed and her lips drew together, staring harder at him. "Was I no good?"

"No, it's certainly not that." He rubbed her leg reassuringly, biting back a new wave of laughter. "It's just-"

"Not what you wanted?" Umi tilted her head.

Clef pushed himself up on his elbows and grinned. "Let's just say it wasn't what I had planned."

"Oh, you had plans, huh?" She moved again, and the bare skin of her legs against his sides was even more noticeable than before. "What sort of plans?"

"Just a few things. I'll show you if you'll let me this time." Clef sat up, and Umi slid back onto his thighs, making him even more aware of how his trousers were now sticking uncomfortably to him, and he wanted them off. But first, he gathered up the bottom of Umi’s dress and pulled the fabric up. She lifted her arms so he could get it off over her head before throwing it off the side of the bed.

Umi blushed prettily as he leaned forward and brushed a stray lock of hair back over her shoulder. Magic rippled beneath her skin, still reacting strongly to his as he ran his fingers down her arms, but it was without the same sort of overwhelming need of earlier, and her hands were gentle as she held onto his waist.

Grinning, he tipped her sideways - more gently than she had him earlier. She dropped into the pillows with a laugh, and he leaned in and kissed her, slowly and lingeringly. His fingers trailing softly down her sides earned him a shiver.

He sat back to wriggle out of his trousers and reached over to put a light on but paused before he hit the switch when Umi twitched and bit her lip. “Would you rather I didn’t turn the light on? I’d like to see you more clearly, but if you would rather not, that’s fine.” 

“No, it’s okay.” Umi wrinkled her nose at him, a flush on her cheeks. “It seems silly, after-” and she waved a hand in a gesture which presumably meant all they had just done. He still paused, but she rolled her eyes and reached out to turn the bedside light on herself. 

The warm glow pooled about the bed as Umi settled back against the pillows, not quite looking at him. She shifted as if she wanted to cover herself, but was fighting back the impulse.

"You're beautiful, you know," he said as he crawled back toward her.

A shy smile curled across Umi's lips. "I bet you've said that to all the girls you've been with."

"Only if it's true. Anyway, it has been a long time since I've been with someone." He kissed her forehead, and laughed again, mostly at himself. "Longer still since I've been with anyone who shares your anatomy."

Umi shoved him up by the shoulders, staring up at him with a startled look in her eye. "Since you what?"

"It's been over six hundred years since I've been intimate with anyone with a womb," Clef replied. Umi blinked at him. He was faintly aware that ideas of relationships and gender were more constrained in Umi's world, but hadn’t realised that would startle her quite this much.

It wasn't that there hadn't been people he'd been interested in, he just knew what he wanted to do with his life, and it couldn't involve a family. "Not since I realised I wanted to aim for Guru. To prevent any chance of accidentally disqualifying myself. After all, I’m living proof that potions are not completely effective."

"You absolutely can't make a baby if you have the same parts?" Umi asked him, and she was starting to snicker. “I suppose that makes sense, somehow?”

"Exactly." He leaned in to kiss her again. “None of my liaisons were very serious before that, and certainly not afterward. Everyone involved knew that it would end if the chance at the post came up.”

Umi draped her arms about his shoulders. "What about me?"

"As you put it, I'm willing to accept the risks, so long as you are. You’re the only one whose opinion on the matter I care for, now." He stroked a hand over her cheek, marvelling at the way she leant into his touch. “Besides. My feelings are treason enough to worry about.” 

Umi pulled him down and caught his lips, and his breath caught. He kissed her cheek, and slid further sideways, pressing his mouth to the skin just below her ear. He laid a trail of soft open-mouthed kisses down her neck and over her collarbone.

Umi arched beneath him as he paused over her heart. He could almost taste the cool well of her magic as he ran his tongue up her breastbone. She tangled her hands in his hair as he moved sideways, pressing kiss after kiss over the curve of her breast, her fingers tightening when he pulled the nipple into his mouth. A shiver ran through him as her fingernails scratched his scalp.

"Clef," she whimpered, and his body responded to that noise almost as strongly as to her touch.

Umi's legs looped around his waist, tightening to pull him close. He hissed in a breath as she raised her hips against his, reawakening his body completely.

"Spirits above, I _will_ teach you patience." He peeled her legs off of him and pinned them to the bed.

"Not a chance," Umi breathed, grinning up at him.

His chest tightened with overwhelming fondness, and he bent to kiss her again, lifting one hand to her face, the other firmly pressing her hip into the mattress. She caught his lip with her teeth as he pulled away, but he would not be distracted this time.

Trailing kisses down the other side of her neck, he ghosted his mouth over her other breast. He traced a leisurely circle around the taut peak with his tongue before nipping ever so lightly with his teeth. Umi let out a shuddering gasp, and her magic eddied under his fingertips as she arched up into his touch. He continued to trace his way down her middle, each kiss sending a soft rippling wave of magic across her skin.

One of Umi's hands stayed clutching his hair and the other fisted in the bedclothes as he moved lower, leaving slow, steady kisses one after another, no inch was forgotten in his line down. Her breath came in gasps as she pressed up into his hands and against his mouth.

She tensed when he passed her navel, perhaps only just recognising his goal. "But, Clef, you've - "

"I don't mind." He smiled up at her as she raised her head to look at him. "Unless you don't want me to?"

Umi bit her lip, a darker blush crossing her cheeks, her earlier confidence wavering again. She dropped her head back on the bed and covered her face with her hands. "It's _embarrassing_!"

Clef rubbed his hands up her legs from knees to hip and back down again. He didn't want to press her into doing anything she didn't want. He could wait. "You have nothing to be ashamed of." He pressed another soft kiss just below her navel. Sliding his hands back up to her hips, he drew soft circles with his thumbs. "Do you want me to stop?

"...No."

"You'll tell me if you want me to, though?" He asked, waiting for an affirmative response before he moved again. Umi let out the whisper of a laugh before uncovering her face and nodding her head. Kissing the smooth skin of her thigh was enough to draw another gasping breath from her. She shifted her hips and let out a soft whimper as he moved upward. 

The taste of her on his tongue made him think of warm sea air. Her magic played under his lips in rippling waves as she arched up, wrapping her legs around him, her heels digging into his back.

The short, sharp sighs were punctuated every so often with the breathy murmur of his name. Sliding one finger inside her, he curled it slightly and pulled back, drawing a broken sound from her. He ground his own hips reflexively against the mattress as he did it again. He'd forgotten how much pleasure he got from making someone else feel good.

Each sound he pulled from her sent a tremor through him. His heart raced and breath caught. When she knotted her fingers in his hair, holding on tight, he should have known he was done for. 

The swell of her magic was building, the surge flashing across his skin with every beat of her heart. Her body tensed beneath him, and Clef could feel that rising wave on the brink of breaking, but it was Clef who was overwhelmed by the flare of power rising off her and flooding his veins. 

He let out a deep moan, his hips thrusting against the mattress as he lost all track of what he was meant to be doing for a long moment. He dropped his forehead against Umi's thigh, gasping for breath.

"Okay…" he managed eventually. "That's a bit… embarrassing." He patted her leg and took a few long deep breaths before laughing. "Give me a minute or two and I can start over."

"Clef, did you just -" Umi moved beneath him “- _finish_?”

"Yeah," he huffed out an embarrassed laugh. "Yeah, I did."

Umi giggled and ruffled his hair. When he opened his eyes, she was propping herself up on one elbow, looking down at him with a smile on her face. When he blinked, lost for words, she started laughing in earnest.

"Oh, shut up." 

She grinned and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, her expression both flirtatious and mischievous. "Was that too much for you, old man?" 

Laughing, Clef pushed up and knocked her backward into the bed, pressing a hot kiss just below her right ear. Her laughter cut off on a hissed-in breath, and her fingers curled into his hair. He scraped his teeth down her neck and started her trembling again, sliding one hand back down.

He was going to make sure it was a good long time before she could string enough of a sentence together to tease him again.

.*.*.*.

Clef woke Umi from her drowse when he lifted the bed covers and let in a small draft of cooler air that made her shiver. She rolled over to see him slide off the bed completely. Sitting up, she clutched the bedclothes, wanting him back curled close and warm with her.

"Where are you going?" 

Clef leaned over the bed and pressed a feather-light kiss to her forehead. "I still have appointments this afternoon." His smile was apologetic and maybe a bit wistful. “I should have a shower and eat something before I meet with anyone." Bending to pick up his trousers, he wrinkled his nose at the state of them and just threw them over his arm as he picked up the rest of his clothing.

Umi pulled her knees up to her chest, watching him. "All afternoon?" She hoped her disappointment wasn't too obvious in her voice. 

Clef nodded, ruefully. "I won't be free until dinner, I think." He ran a free hand through his hair. "If you want to, after dinner, you could- um-" His hand moved in a vague gesture, and he let out a soft huff of a laugh. "I _have_ done a miserable job of actually showing you around. I haven't even shown you where the bath is. I thought, if you would like to join me…"

"That could be nice," Umi said, a little too quickly. Clef bent to kiss her again - this time on the mouth - then turned toward the door. Umi hugged her knees tighter, feeling very unsure about what she should do. "Clef?"

"Yes?" He looked back, pausing halfway through turning the handle.

"Do you want me to come eat with you?"

"I would like that." The smile on his face made her breath catch and her heart race, and it took all her willpower not to try tempting him back into bed so she could hold him longer.

After her second shower of the day, Umi went back to the wardrobe to pick a proper outfit. Reaching for one of the hangers, her hand faltered as realisation struck her. Casting a glance back at the rumpled bedclothes, she laughed. They'd actually had sex. Not just once. Not even just today, if she was counting what they'd done last night at Ouran's house. (She was definitely counting that.)

Swallowing back another laugh, she pulled out a little frilly blue dress her mother had picked for her last summer; she had packed it because it showed off her legs. Her hand stalled again on her underwear drawer as she realised whatever she was about to pick, Clef would possibly see that night, at least when she changed for a bath. A flush of heat rushed into her cheeks as she thought about it.

It was silly to be embarrassed by the idea when he'd had his hands all over her just a little while before, but it was a startlingly new thing to think of.

Clef was waiting by the window between their rooms when she stepped out, looking down into the gardens. He was wearing lavender robes, his hair still damp. 

Her face got hotter when he held out a hand, because her very first thought was just where that hand had been before. She bit her lip and took it, linking her fingers through his and glancing over to see Clef quirking an eyebrow at her.

She laughed and shook her head.

"Come on," he said, tugging her toward the stairs. "I haven't got much time for lunch."

It turned out that they were just late enough that everything had been tidied up. Aveo was just putting the last of the flatbreads into a large container on the countertop when they entered the kitchen. She closed it and reached for the kettle just as it started to whistle, filling a waiting teapot.

"Good afternoon," she greeted them, a little too brightly. "Glad to see you two made it out of bed. We didn't think we'd even see you before supper."

Umi's face went very hot, but Clef just rolled his eyes. "I do still have work I need to be doing," he said. "I haven't taken a holiday from both of my positions this week, just the Guru part."

"Well if you hadn't been away nearly a fortnight last month, you wouldn't have so much to catch up on here." Aveo grinned at him as she picked up the little tea tray.

"I had a lot to get done at the castle!"

"Of course you did." She winked at Umi and walked out towards her wing.

Clef shook his head and muttered something about nosy people as he headed for the larder. Umi followed him and stood in the doorway while Clef was picking things up off the shelves.

"I didn't think it would feel so…" She waved a hand vaguely in the air, trying to find the word she wanted. She wasn't exactly embarrassed. Maybe a little self-conscious but that didn't seem like the right word either. "…weird, I guess, that other people know."

Clef smiled. "Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried. I just -" Umi ran a hand through her hair and laughed. "I don't even know."

"Hey." He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll tell them to quit it if you want. They'll keep teasing me, of course, but they'll wait until you're not about to do it if it's making you uncomfortable."

"No, I don't - it'll be alright? I think?"

"Well, if not, I can get them to stop. Or you could get your own back by asking Kalos why the ‘no public rooms’ rule exists…"

Umi snickered. "Was that something to do with the library?"

"Well, the library’s one of the reasons." He kissed her head again, then headed to the bread bin. "If you do ask, do it when Getz is in the room, you'll get to watch him turn bright red too. But what do you want for lunch? Most of the normal things are around here somewhere."

They ate in the little dining room, and Clef sighed reluctantly when he finished, before kissing her properly one last time and heading off to his meetings. Umi watched him go, trying not to pout, and then slumped in her seat.

Well, first things first - she grabbed all the crockery they'd used and took it back to wash it. She'd figure out what to do next when that was done.

Ten minutes later Getz came galumphing through the kitchen door, scraping dirty boots off on the mat in front of the door before grabbing for the ever-present pot of tea on the edge of the hob. "Oh! Hey," he greeted Umi. Giving her a speculative look, he asked, "What are you doing right now?"

"Um…" Umi glanced down at the now-empty sink and shrugged. "Nothing, I guess?"

"Well, if you're going to keep Clef from procrastinating by fiddling with the garden, you wanna help me out this afternoon?"

Umi tried her best not to blush at the implication of his words. Despite having no idea what it was he wanted help with, she nodded.

"Good!" Getz set his cup back down and led the way out into the herb garden. As it turned out, he wanted some help with one of the recently turned over plots. Aygo was already on one side with a tray of seedlings that he was planting out in a mostly straight line, whereas Getz presented her with a paper envelope of seeds and a little stick.

"About that deep," Getz said, demonstrating the length of the first joint of his thumb. He crouched down beside her to demonstrate. A moment later, he turned and looked at her, a smirk playing across his lips. "Do you want me to do something about that?" he asked, tapping his fingers lightly on the side of his neck with a grin.

"What?" Umi touched her neck, and it twinged slightly. Try as she might, she couldn't stop the rush of heat to her cheeks as she realised she must be bruised from Clef biting her. "I - Um -"

"I've seen worse," Getz smiled. He brushed off his hands and reached out toward her, and she blinked in confusion. When she leaned away, he dropped his hand and looked apologetic. "Sorry. I _am_ actually a healer, not just a herbalist. I just like gardening; plants don't talk back as often." 

“He really is,” Aygo confirmed, not looking away from his task and apparently happily oblivious to the reason Getz was offering to heal her. “Not just a healer, he’s our Head Healer. Which is why he should be living closer to town like Kalos and Brisa!”

“They live right on the square! Far too many people,” Getz grumbled. “Plus Clef’d mess up the gardens here if I left…” He turned back to Umi and tilted his head. "If you'll just turn like this, I can-"

Umi tucked her hair back behind her ear, blushing profusely, then angled her head the way Getz demonstrated. He didn't even touch her. He held a hand a few inches away from her and a warmth spread under her skin before dissipating just as quickly.

"Clef can probably do something about it next time, if you'd rather ask him. He's not very good at healing spells. Well, he's actually kind of terrible. It stings like fire, but he should be able to fix a little bruising."

And with that, the subject was dropped, and they went back to planting.

.*.*.*.

It was getting close to dinner time when Clef came to find Umi out in the garden with Getz and Aygo, sitting on the low wall around one of the vegetable patches. Her hand paused as she plucked out one of the weeds when she laughed at something Getz was telling her. He smiled when she caught sight of him, ignoring the knowing smirk crossing Getz's face.

"I figured if she was going to be taking up your free time, she could help out in your place," Getz said, standing and stretching. 

Clef rolled his eyes at Getz and turned to Umi. "You’re a guest, you know. You don't have to earn your keep like he does."

"I know," Umi said, leaving dirty streaks down her dress as she wiped her hands on it. "It's not like I had anything better to be doing."

"Well, now that I'm free, why don't I give you that tour I promised." He held out a hand that Umi happily took.

"You two shouldn't disappear for too long." Getz motioned back toward the sun, low on the horizon. "It's almost dinner time, and you know how Aveo feels about you skipping meals, Clef."

"You’re as bad as she is!" Clef called, leading Umi up the path and around the side of the house to a different door to avoid the kitchen, as he was pretty certain Kalos and Brisa were both in there helping Aveo, dinner promised to be rowdy.

As soon as they were safely alone in the corridor, he turned to Umi and cupped her cheek with his hand as he leaned in for a kiss. When he finally pulled back, Clef admitted, "I've been wanting to do that all afternoon."

"You don't have to stop," Umi said, closing the distance again.

When they broke the kiss that time, Clef shook his head at Umi leaning in toward him. "We ought to get moving."

Umi opened her mouth - presumably to argue - and Clef just laughed and took her hand, towing her down the corridor with him. There was nothing in this area but offices and workrooms for Mazda’s ward Circle, so he just waved at the doors and said who they belonged to. Not that the names meant anything to her yet.

When they reached the public rooms, he started opening any closed doors and showing her inside. When he showed her the smaller formal dining room and explained that it was used more often as a meeting room for the Circle than for eating, Umi laughed at him.

"Is that because all of you eat in the kitchen most nights?" Umi asked. "Or because you don't like inviting people here?"

"I invite people!" he declared, then blinked at her, realising she was actually the only person he'd invited in at least a year. "Well, I could."

She was still giggling at him when he tugged her on. They looped around the outer corridors of the house, and Umi paused with more and more interest when they got to the wing with teaching rooms.

She stood in the doorway of the potion room for a good five minutes staring at the tables with their bowls and measures and the selection of herbs hanging from the rafters above. "If there's a potion room, why did everyone use the kitchen yesterday?"

"Aveo prefers the kitchen equipment. It hasn't been broken over a dozen times by students who've gotten things wrong, and it’s mostly student stuff in here. The more dangerous ingredients are locked away in the pantry."

When they reached what should be a large banqueting hall - yet another in the line of rooms he wasn't exactly using to purpose - Umi reached out and touched the walls, before turning back to him. "Is this shielded?"

Clef smiled. She was definitely getting better at sensing magic. "Yes. It's warded for magic training. It may even be strong enough to stand up to sparring, but the shields haven't been tested against that yet."

At the mention of sparring, Umi bounced on her feet and looked over at him expectantly.

"Oh, no," he shook his head. "Not today."

"But -"

"We can test it later this week, if you want." Clef took her hand and pulled her out the other side and into a new corridor.

"I'm going to hold you to that!" Umi declared, happily trailing behind him.

"Up here are the student bedrooms," Clef said, opening a door to reveal a small staircase.

Umi peered in around him, leaning back precariously to look up at the landing above. "Bedrooms for overnight stays, or to actually live here?"

"Whichever they need." He didn't want anyone in his ward to suffer the same fate as Ascot, because that should never have happened. He would spend the rest of his life making sure that no child was left without a place to go because people didn't know how to deal with them. “Aygo’s living up there right now, but the others are used on and off.”

Changing the subject he waved a hand down the corridor. "There are also workshops down there for metalworking, and beyond that is Getz's clinic, and a small infirmary.”

The first peal of the dinner bell reverberated through the house then. 

"I guess we should head back?" Umi looked down both ends of the corridor and back at Clef.

Choosing yet another path through the house, Clef pulled her into the vestibule that Getz had taken over and turned into a garden room. It was two stories tall, with an arched crystal roof that let the light pour in. With the sun setting, the light was more golden than bright. It was steamed and heated to mimic the environment of some of the great Chizetan gardens, making it easier to grow their plants; there were a few small fruit trees in the centre and flowering vines growing up along the walls, behind a variety of other flowers and shrubs.

"Oh!" Umi exclaimed, turning in a circle.

"This is Getz's pet project. I'm allowed the come in and enjoy it, but he won’t let me touch anything."

"It's beautiful."

Everyone else was already sitting at the table when they made it down to the kitchen. Dinner began with a bit more sniggering than usual, but it was Getz who actually broached the subject.

"So, as you two have obviously stopped dancing around and gotten on with things, do you want to share when that actually happened? Because we -" Getz waved around the table (ignoring Clef’s grumble of ‘ _it was illegal before last night_ ’) "- need to settle a bet."

Clef asked "What counts?" at the same time as Umi's startled, "There was a bet?"

"If you have to ask what counts, then that's when it happened," Kalos said. All of them ignored Aygo, who had shoved his hands over his ears and was humming loudly to drown out the conversation.

Clef rolled his eyes. "I meant what were the terms of the bet. I’m not going to give anyone information enough to argue technicalities for a week."

Brisa grinned. "Oh, one-sided or mutual. It counts either way, as long as one of you got to _very happy_."

"I put my money on ten minutes after it was legal," Aveo said, lifting her fork to her mouth.

Memories of the night before in the alcove flashed across Clef's mind and he couldn't stop the rush of heat to his cheeks. He cast his glance to Umi who had also gone an even brighter red.

Getz let out a loud groan of annoyance. "How did you _know_?" he demanded of Aveo, who just grinned at him around a mouthful of food.

After a bit of grumbling around the table about who owed whom what, the topic was mostly dropped and dinner went on as it usually did. Well, as usual as it could be with Umi sat close enough beside him that her knee brushed against his more times than could possibly be accidental. The third time it happened he stole the last of the flatbread from her plate and pulled a face at her. 

“Mean,” Umi said, eyes dancing. 

“Fair,” he retorted. “You distracted me while Aygo got the last bread, so I’ll have this bit.”

“Well, if that’s how it goes…” Umi promptly ran her foot right up his calf and stole the last of the fruit from his plate while he squawked.

It was a good thing there wasn’t much left, or escalation would probably have ended up in a food fight, but instead, they just finished the last of their meals very fast.

Clef hesitated, glancing at everyone else, but it wasn’t as though they were even pretending to not know what was going on. “If you wanted,” he said, softly, “my earlier offer still stands?” 

Umi set her cup down, a high flush on her cheeks that he really wanted to kiss, and nodded. “Yes,” she told him, and he ignored Kalos snickering and being elbowed by Brisa to stand and take Umi’s hand, leading her away from the table - and the _audience_ \- and heading for the corridor back to the bath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conversation that popped up about Huki is why I wrote [Good Advice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12889074). I wanted to know a bit more about what happened when she'd flailed at Clef. If you haven't read that silly nonsense yet, I suggest you go do so. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'd love to know what you thought about it.


	8. In which a bath turns into a water fight and a box becomes a proposal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to down for being my beta reader on this project. Thank you for spending your free time for the better part of the week helping me polish this nonsense. You are lovely, and I love you! (any other errors are entirely my own - like coding issues that make me hiss and delete the whole chapter because I posted before previewing it so didn't catch it the first go round.

Umi got just enough of a glimpse of the note pinned to the bathroom door to guess it was addressed to Clef - it definitely looked like his name at the top - before he yanked it off and crumpled it up, rolling his eyes. The bit of paper went directly into a bin when he opened the door and waved her in, making her very curious about what it might have said, but she was more curious still about the new rooms she hadn’t seen.

Inside was a smaller - though still not small - version of the dressing room she'd used in the castle baths. One wall held shelves piled with towels and soaps and lotions and sundries, with few large baskets sat on the floor below.

"If you want to have your dress cleaned, I can get it back to you after washing day?" Clef said, waving a free hand at her muddy skirt as he dropped his outer robe into the basket on the left. Then he was pulling his shirt off over his head, and Umi was distracted by the muscles playing across his back as he turned away to remove his boots, any thought of the mysterious note completely disappeared from her head. She took a breath and failed to stop watching as the shirt was swiftly followed by his trousers and underwear. He picked up a towel and went to open the second door before he paused - perhaps remembering she was there - and turned back around. "Is there anything you need? Everything should be set out like it is at the castle."

Umi blushed fiercely at the sight of him standing there casually when he was so very naked and shook her head.

“Just come through when you’re ready.” He gave her a warm smile and walked through into the bath, leaving her alone in the dressing room. She stood staring at the door, unable to stop blushing. It wasn't like she hadn't already seen him naked. It was just - it was different when they weren't in the middle of… _things_.

Umi shook her head and laughed softly at herself before yanking her dress off over her head and throwing it into the basket, followed by her underwear. After tying up her hair, she wrapped a towel about herself and walked into the bathroom.

It was another large room. The floor was an intricate geometric mosaic of tiles in blue, lavender, gold, and white. At the far end of the room was a deep, sunken pool lined in the same tile and filled almost to the edge with steaming water. 

The wall closest to the door was lined with several stools with shower hoses. Clef was sat on the seat in the middle, washing himself with a soapy cloth. He looked up and smiled at her when she sat down on the nearest stool to the door, and made herself look away from him.

"It's easier to wash without the towel," he said, his voice gently amused.

"I - yes - " Umi twisted the fabric with her hands, self-conscious about the way she was still staring anytime she looked over at him.

The vaguest hint of a smirk was playing at the corner of his lips when she glanced over again, her eyes traveling down his neck and shoulder and over his side, lingering on the fair skin of his leg and shape of the muscles where it curved up to meet his back. No, it wasn't just his leg, she was totally staring at his butt - what she could see of it as he was sat down, anyway.

Huffing out another embarrassed laughed Umi turned away rubbing her cheeks; her face was so hot it was almost painful. 

"If the heat's bothering you, we can cool you off," Clef said. Umi didn't notice him raising the shower head until he shot her with a short blast of cold water.

With a loud squawk, Umi nearly fell off the stool in surprise. She grabbed the shower attachment in front of herself and turned it on him, yanking the temperature dial round to as cold as it went.

Clef just cackled as he jumped out of the way before she managed to get more than his arm. He aimed the spray from his attachment up into the air and it splattered down over Umi, making her yelp at the shock of cold. 

Umi dropped her shower head - it clattered across the floor, still spraying - and leapt back away from him, using magic to drag water to her hands. She was so intent on getting him back she barely noticed the soggy towel falling from around her, and she certainly didn’t care. 

She threw the spell at him with more force than she probably should have, but Clef blocked it with one raised hand and a word before trying to spray her again. But Umi had made it out of range of his water; she laughed, as he frowned at the shower as if it had disappointed him.

Hanging his shower hose neatly back on its hook - and shutting off Umi’s with a casual wave of his hand - Clef took three long steps towards her before dropping to his knee and pressing his hand to the wet floor. A crackle of electricity about his hands gave his spell away, but too late for Umi to get somewhere dry - there _wasn’t_ really anywhere dry by now. 

The pulse shot flickered brightly across the tiles, sending a startling shiver up through Umi's body from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. She sucked in a breath, trying not to notice the way the heat was pooling in her belly at that. Biting her lip, she threw a proper attack at him. The watery dragon flew through the air at full speed before splattering across Clef’s quickly-cast shield, exploding away from him in a silvery rain. 

Clef grinned at her, his hair curling around his face and cheeks lightly flushed. 

She wanted to kiss him. Now. Push him back on the tiles and-

The next spell she gathered in her hand faltered and poured out of her hand as her eyes travelled down his body, and a new blush heated her cheeks. “Um...” No matter how she tried to keep looking him in the eye, her gaze kept flickering down. 

She evidently wasn't the only one who'd been turned on by that magic play.

"Oh, sorry." Clef ran a hand through his hair and turned away slightly. "Just ignore that.” He waved her off. “It'll stop doing it in a little while."

Umi didn’t look away, vividly remembering what it felt like to run her hands over him. Her fingertips were almost tingling with the urge to do it again. Perhaps if she asked very nicely...

"Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no." Clef laughed and turned away completely to sit back down on his stool, brandishing the shower head again. "I really would like to have a bath."

"Ah, yes. I forget you are a very old man." Umi poked him in the shoulder as she dropped onto the stool beside him. "So arthritic, you probably need a very long soak after this morning."

For that, Clef actually did spray the water her way again, but it was warm this time. She threw it right back at him with the flick of a wrist, and then they both dissolved into laughter. 

Umi was still giggling when she finally rinsed the last of the soap off of herself and walked over to the steaming pool of water. She eased herself down the little flight of steps into the water, and sat on the low ledge, so the water came up to her chest as she leaned back against the side. A few moments later, Clef slid over the side, dropping into the water and setting ripples running across the surface.

"It's market day tomorrow," he said conversationally. "We can still go, if you like?"

"I thought Aveo cut off your credit?"

"Only when it comes to buying stuff." He shrugged. "I can still show you the village, and we can get a hot lunch before going out further. I did promise to show you more of Cephiro than just my bedroom."

"Well, I haven't really seen much of that either." Umi grinned.

He pushed a wave of water at her. "You know what I mean."

"Are you saying you don't want to show me your bedroom?" She splashed water back at him, giggling. "I mean, I showed you mine, so I thought that meant you’d show me yours."

"Oh, is that how it works?"

"I don't know, you tell me. You're the one with more experience in these matters."

"It's been such a long time. As you say, I am _very old_." He made his voice creak on the last words and Umi snorted a laugh.

Even now he’d grown, Clef definitely didn't look more than about twenty-five - thirty at most - by Earth standards. She didn't actually know if that made much of a difference to how well his body functioned. He might have reached his limit for today, and maybe he did ache after that much activity - he’d drawn things out longer than she expected, not that she’d been complaining - and that's why he was insisting on finishing his bath before doing anything else.

She poked him in the arm again. "I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to."

"Are you always going to be this chatty in the bath?" Clef asked, leaning back against the side. "Because I might have to re-think inviting you in with me in the future."

Umi harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting dramatically at him. The corner of Clef's lips turned up slightly before he tried to force a frown. Umi tried to hold her pout, but a smile was lurking at the corners of her mouth, making them twitch up.

Resting back against the comfortably curved edge, she reached one arm out along the side of the bath; Clef stretched his arm back towards her and tangled their fingers together as they settled into a restful quiet, the water soothing both of them.

.*.*.*.

The next morning, Clef woke to find that his pillow was breathing. He blinked a few times as he slowly realised his head was actually pressed against Umi's chest, which explained why his pillow had also gained a heartbeat. He mumbled an apology as he tried to move, only to find his arm wrapped around her and his legs tangled with hers under the covers.

Umi giggled, sounding decidedly more awake than him."It's like sleeping with a tako."

Carefully extracting himself, Clef rolled over and blinked at her. The last word she’d said hadn’t meant anything to him, which probably meant there was no Cephiran translation. "What's a tako?"

"Oh, it's a -" she made a grabbing motion with her hands, and Clef leaned a little further back. "- creature that lives in the sea. It's got eight tentacle-arms, and wraps them around things." She pushed up on one elbow and grinned at him. "You didn't warn me that you were a snuggler."

"I forgot?" Clef offered, which was true enough. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's better than sleeping with either Hikaru or Fuu. I definitely don't miss being tickled in the middle of the night."

"Tickled?"

"Fuu's a sleep-tickler." Umi leaned toward him, hand poised delicately on his hip. "You'll be sleeping soundly when all of a sudden -" Clef yelped when Umi actually ran her fingers up his side and tickled him. When he flung himself away from her, she flopped back onto the bed giggling. "I think I preferred Hikaru sleep-questing, though."

"I'm not even going to ask," Clef said, chancing another tickle-attack as he slid back towards her. He bent to kiss her - just once, quickly - before drawing back to shuck off his nightshirt and gather up the fabric of her nightgown. Umi giggled again, wriggling as he helped her off with it. 

She was in his bed, flushed and smiling happily at him, reaching out to pull him close. He wasn't convinced this wasn't all some vivid invention of his mind. He'd had more than a handful of dreams that started this way… but that was truly the skin of Umi’s cheek soft under his fingers when he touched her, and the hot, damp press of her lips against the palm of his hand as she turned her head.

The dream-Umi had never had that dark freckle on her side just under her left breast, or the three thin scarred lines on her hip from her pet at home. There were a thousand little details to prove this wasn't just some waking dream that would leave him wanting.

He lingered on each touch, savouring the feeling of her skin beneath his fingers and his lips until she was shuddering against the pillows and whimpering his name. Some small part of him was still thoroughly smug that he had retained some idea of how to please someone else, despite the centuries of abstinence.

She was getting her breath back and urging him back up the bed when a loud knock startled the two of them apart. Umi made a grab for the bedclothes to cover herself, and Clef sat up to glare at their interrupter - despite being unable to see them.

"We're leaving soon," Kalos called through the closed door, "so you two need to get out of bed."

"Give us another half-hour," Clef called back.

"We're not waiting for you to have sex," Kalos retorted, and Umi let out an embarrassed squeak as she sunk further into the covers. "You can do that when you get back."

Clef just sighed. "You can go without us, you know!"

"Mum's threatened to send anyone with questions back here if you don't go into town for at least a few hours this week, so it's not like you'd get much private time anyway."

Clef grimaced. She had a point, and he _had_ promised to show Umi the market. But he wasn’t going to bolt out of bed and straight out of the house. "We still need to shower and get dressed. Plus, I assume you haven't brought us breakfast."

"You have twenty minutes, and you can get your own breakfast," was the last thing Kalos said before he could hear her footsteps walking away. Biting back a sharp retort, Clef turned his attention back to Umi, who was slipping away from him toward the side of the bed.

"I should probably go," she said.

Clef offered his hand out to her. "Stay a little longer?"

She wavered, and he closed the space between them, trailing his fingers lightly up her side before catching her mouth with his. That was all it took to encourage her to let him pick up where they left off; they used the first half of their time to do exactly what they'd been told not to.

.*.*.*.

After one very quick shower - alone, or she got the feeling it wouldn’t have been quick at all - Umi sifted through the dresses Clef had given her until she found one simple enough to put on by herself. It was of two squares of deep indigo fabric with a silvery-blue pattern about the edges, caught up at the shoulders with jewelled brooches and overlapping at the sides. A sash in a lighter blue kept the two pieces from flapping open about her, and the hem brushed just above her knees.

There were three new bottles of the contraceptive potion where the two empty ones had been on the dressing table, beside the jewellery boxes. Someone must have brought up for her that morning, because they hadn't been there last night. Even though she knew it was sensible, Umi flushed as she took her dose for that day and opened the first box of jewellery.

It was the first time she'd actually seen inside without anyone’s hands in the way. There were nearly enough pieces to accessorize half of the outfits at once, and that was only the first box? Umi’s breath caught on a near-hysterical laugh. If Clef had bought all of this for her, no wonder Aveo had cut his credit off! 

She picked out a simple silver bracelet with a single gem the colour of her dress set in the centre of openwork curves, and found a pair of matching ear-cuffs. A pair of boots from the wardrobe finished the outfit off. Like most of the shoes she'd worn here, they adjusted to her size once her feet were comfortably in them.

Taking a moment before dashing out to find everyone, she stared at herself in the mirror. She looked… like she belonged in Cephiro.

The thought did strange things to her stomach; she shoved it aside, and headed out.

Clef was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, holding out a piece of flat-bread with the spicy fruit spread she liked. She took it and slipped her free hand into his as they headed out the door to join everyone else.

It was a leisurely walk, filled with friendly chatter and laughter, not that Umi was doing much of the talking at first while she concentrated on not dropping her food as she ate it. At some point, houses started creeping up along the edges of the road, the gaps between them started growing smaller and smaller as they went on. When the gaps disappeared almost entirely and walls lined the way, leading down a real street, Umi realised this was no little village, no matter what Clef called it. It was a proper town; she slowed down a little, letting go of Clef’s hand as she looked about.

Everything was all bright and new, evidence of how few years it had existed, but there were potted plants and washing lines and all sorts of things that made a place feel homey and lived in. There was even a group of children down one side-road playing a complicated-looking game with bits of fabric and a ball which they were tossing to each other.

They passed more and more people as they walked on. Many smiled and waved a greeting to Clef, who waved back in return. 

No one actually stopped them until they rounded a corner to a large market square. Along the sides there were permanent shops extended outside for the occasion, with tables and awnings set out in front of their windows. In the middle was an array of stalls ranging from small tables that were probably only a metre across to long ones at least three times that. Some people had cloth roofs on poles to give themselves and their goods some shade, other people were happily sat on their table, or behind it.

Just as they walked into the square someone called out Clef’s name, and Umi turned to see a woman calling him over to the draper's shop on the corner they had just passed. The woman (who Umi assumed must be the shopkeeper) spoke a few words to Clef before enthusiastically waving Umi over.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Lady Umi. I'm Teana, head of Mazda's Merchant Guild." She grinned. "We'd wondered what Master Clef was doing with all that fabric, as _he_ certainly wasn't wearing it. When Kalos told us about you, well. It all made sense then.”

Clef muttered “Glad to know Kalos is still sharing my personal business,” but Teana continued on, ignoring him.

“That colour looks beautiful on you. I'm glad." She leaned in, with a conspiratorial smile. "It would have made our warden look paler than he already is, which is frightening to contemplate."

"Hey!" Clef said, affronted.

Teana laughed and winked at Umi before launching into a discussion with Clef about trade and supply. Umi soon lost track once they got to exports and central Guild decisions, she didn’t have the context to follow it, and the myriad of beautiful fabrics on display was far more captivating than the conversation. Many were shades of the indigo and violet that featured so strongly in her new wardrobe. 

When someone else turned up to join the conversation, Clef waved Umi on, telling her to have a look around the market and that he would catch up with her soon. Umi was happy enough to wander along the rows, pausing at one of the stalls to marvel at the collection of shiny things - metal-work boxes, gems set in rings and plates and all sorts of other things.

She lingered long enough to draw the attention of the stall holder as she looked at a collection of bracelets. "Those little things are handier than you'd expect, lady. Each gem is charmed to store the equivalent of a whole household's supplies and with the very best preservation spells. Ideal for anyone who needs to keep a pantry and has no room for it in their home."

"Are all these gems for food?" Umi asked, startled by the idea that storage spells could be specialised. It made sense, but she’d never thought about it that much. Their gloves had held everything they needed in one place - well, except for the things Mokona carried for them. 

...And Mokona was probably a special case, considering all they knew now.

The stall keeper shook his head and started pointing at the groups of items, apparently happy to explain to an interested potential-customer. "These rings and belts here, they're tuned for spirit summoners. This set of boxes is for general use, and these things, the _these_ are all charmed to be the very best at clothing storage. You could leave that dress in here three centuries without a single wrinkle or a hint of tarnish."

She looked over the table again, and small set of intricately decorated boxes caught her attention. They were set a little apart from the others, on a velvet-like cloth. "What about those?" she asked. "They're pretty."

"Those are promise-boxes," he said, with a wink. Umi stared at him a moment too long. "…Ah. You aren't from Cephiro? Well, when a couple pledges to enter a relationship - the serious kind, mind you, not just fooling about - it's a tradition for the one who did the courting to buy their partner a keepsake.”

“Oh,” Umi said, trying not to blink at ‘courting’.

The stall holder continued. “These are all charmed to hold whatever treasures might be kept - a dry flower, a ring, a letter - with the strongest possible protections. The decorations are all meaningful as well. This one has tefuron flowers, see, for loyalty, and this one has lines from one of our famous love-stories etched into the metal." He pointed to the pattern around the edge of the oval lid, and Umi realised it wasn't just a pattern, but scrolling Cephiran cursive script. "The gift doesn't have to be a box, of course, but they're a popular choice."

"They're beautiful," Umi murmured, running wistful fingers over the words she couldn't read. "What does it say?"

The voice that answered wasn't the stall keeper; Clef stepped up beside her, taking her hand in his. "It says 'Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay'," he told her. "Did you see something you want?"

Umi pulled her hand back and shook her head, a warm blush creeping over her cheeks. "You've given me enough, Clef."

Her fingers must have lingered a little too long on that box. Clef turned to the stall holder and asked "How much is this one?"

The other man’s smile fell off his face as he focused on Clef. "You know I've been told I can't sell you anything else. No offence intended, but you understand Aveo can be scarier than even you, right?"

"That’s why she’s my seneschal,” Clef said, sounding proud. He reached into his pocket. “You're not allowed to sell me anything on credit. However, Aveo's given me a small allowance, so you needn’t worry."

When Clef pulled out the jangling pouch, Umi tugged him away from the table and out of earshot. "No, Clef. It's too much! You've already given me so many beautiful things. I have jewellery and dresses and shoes enough to last me for years, you don't need to get me anything else."

"Those were just -" He waved a hand in the air and then shook his head. "They were things that reminded me of you. I _want_ to give you something - a present you’ve actually had some choice about. You like the box, right? You could just think of it as - I don't know - a memento?"

"A memento of _what_ , exactly? Of the fact we had sex?" Umi snapped, voice harsher than she meant for it to be. That box was supposed to be more than just a souvenir, and they both knew it. "Clef, we can't - _you_ can't do this." 

Clef couldn't be in a relationship. No matter how hard he’d been ignoring it the past day, it wasn't allowed. Push though she might, Umi had accepted this wasn’t going to be anything… permanent, not yet. Just sex. That was all he was allowed, that was what they had to pretend this was. She never wanted him to actually get into any real trouble; which recognising this as something more could do so. 

"Next week, things will have to go back to how they were. I thought that was the plan - I thought that was _your_ plan!"

"I don't want one night. And just one week is -" Clef's grip on her hands tightened, and his expression grew very serious. "I don't want things to go back to what they were, Umi. Unless you do?"

Umi stared at him, unsure of what to say.

.*.*.*.

When Umi didn't respond, the knot in Clef's chest tightened. He hadn't actually thought this could just be a game for her, but faced with her silence he wasn't so sure that he hadn't been played.

"If you want to forget this week happened, we can," he said, choosing his words carefully. "But Umi, If that's the case, I think I'd rather go back to being just friends. None of _this_." He waved a hand between them, and Umi looked down at the ground. "Because I don't want anything casual, and I definitely don't want to pretend this isn't - that we're not -" Clef took a breath and shook his head. No matter how little he cared about the law intended to govern his emotions, he probably shouldn’t state them aloud, in public. At least, not yet.

"I told you months ago, I don't want to just be your _friend_ , Clef." There were tears glittering in the corners of her eyes when she lifted her head. "You know that I -" She bit off the end of her sentence and shook her head, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t want to pretend, either.”

"Then please will you let me buy you a gift?" When she nodded, Clef drew her back to the display, not letting go of her hand. "It doesn't have to be one of these, but I’d like to get you _something_."

Umi's hand almost instantly went back to the little box with quote, but she curled her fingers into a fist and pulled back before she touched it. She turned back to him and said, "Really, Clef, it can wait. At least until-"

“Buying you a token doesn’t change what I feel one way or the other. If people want to make something of it, they’ve plenty more to talk about than this; let them.” He leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. “The second law is impossible, and I refuse to waste time fretting over it anymore.” Clef reached back into his pocket and pulled out the money-pouch Aveo had given him that morning in the three minutes he’d made it downstairs before Umi had, and waved Holbio back from where he’d courteously moved down to the end of the stall, leaving them a little more privacy without comment. "Is that enough for the box?"

Holbio laughed as he tipped the coins into his palm. "That and about a dozen other things."

"Just the box for now," Clef said, picking it up with both hands. He read the inscription once more and smiled. 

With a sudden feeling of formality, he turned to Umi and offered it out to her with both hands. A furious blush brightened Umi’s cheeks as she accepted it and clutched it tightly in her hands. 

“...Thank you.” She looked down at it, and grinned suddenly, her smile taking Clef’s breath away. “Though if I’m meant to put everything you’ve given me in it, I’m not sure the wardrobes will fit.” Clef snorted, shaking his head.

"My sincerest congratulations to you and our warden, my Lady." An incandescent grin bloomed across Holbio’s face as he handed Clef a rather lighter coin pouch. There was a glint to that smile that made Clef feel like it wasn't only the main household who had been wagering about his relationship. For a group of people who tended to spend a lot of time alone, they were all terrible gossips when they got together.

Rather than ask, Clef thanked him and led Umi onward. She glanced at the bracelet she wore, then at him; he nodded, and she let the box slide away into the gemstone on it. “Handy,” she murmured, and let him take her hand again. 

They wandered along the rest of the market stalls together. Anytime Umi showed interested in a little trinket, she immediately waved him off, saying she liked it, but she didn't need it. He was stopped a few more times for simple questions that took a couple of minutes to answer, and a couple of people handed him reports to read later.. All told, it was just about lunchtime when they made it toward the far end of the marketplace and the lane with the little cafe he liked.

They took a seat at the only empty table left outside, where they could enjoy the sun. Umi looked curiously around them before fixing him with a stare. "Clef, this is not a village."

"It was when I built it." Clef looked around them. The number of houses had grown rather a lot in the past year; people had started returning to Cephiro from abroad, and Mazda had received their fair share. Most of the wards were dealing with the influx of people well enough. It helped that the land was still excessively fertile after her rebirth, but it was encouraging new wards to develop rather faster than they had bargained for. "I suppose it's a bit bigger now."

"A bit? This is a town. Towns have markets."

Clef shrugged, unworried; he'd probably keep calling it a village. He pulled the little pouch of coins out of his pocket passed it across the table. "Here. I don't have any need for it, so you're welcome to spend it on anything else you'd like."

Umi pushed it back. "Clef, I can't."

"No, it's yours." It was money given to him specifically for her morning gift; spending it on anything else was wrong. "You always say there are things you'd like to get while you're in Cephiro. Weren't there some bracelets or something you were wanting the other week when Caldina took you all out into Castleton?" Taking her hand in his, he pressed the pouch into her palm and closed her fingers over it. "Next time you can have them."

"I think I’ve got enough jewellery for now, Clef - you’ve given me two boxes full! And how are you planning to pay for lunch?"

"I told you last night. I'm not allowed to buy things, but I can use my account on food to eat and tea to drink." He smiled as the the server brought out a tray of tea without him even needing to ask. "Now do you know what sort of thing you might want for lunch, or am I ordering for both of us?"

.*.*.*.

Umi gave in when Clef showed no signs of taking the money back, and made him read the menu out to her. She hadn't realised how few names she knew for the food in Cephiro. Everything was always served buffet-style, even in the Castle dining hall. There were dishes in intervals along the lengths of the tables, and everyone was able to help themselves, so she'd never needed to know what the foods were called; just if she liked the look of it or not.

In the end, Clef did order for them. The main dish was some rich meat stew served over fluffy spiced grain, but they also had a small variety of side-dishes to share between them. Umi was taken by the julienned root vegetable that had been fried to a delicious crisp.

She was just finishing the last of them when Clef let out a sharp gasp and leaned forward on the table, his face going paler by the second.

"Clef?" Umi jolted forward and grabbed his hand. "Are you alright?"

"It's Honda." He shoved himself up from the table. "I need to go."

Umi was on her feet a moment later. "What's happened? What can I do?"

Clef held out his hand without a word, looking off into the distance, and set off as soon as her hand was in his. As they walked quickly down the lane - and out of the town, Umi realised - his grip shifted from her hand to her wrist. When he tightened his hold she wrapped her fingers around his wrist, just in time for the rush of magic to wash over her like it had the night they attended the ball. The ticklish prickle of it swept across her as the town vanished and was replaced by a wave of trees. 

With the next step of Clef's foot on the ground, they were suddenly in the middle of a field of Cephiran cattle. A second, and the prickle spread again; Clef pulled her on another step, and they were on the side of a hill with a view of the sea on the distant horizon.

"Don’t you know where you're going?" Umi gasped, dizzy from the repeatedly shifting landscape. 

"Somewhere on the northern edge of the border," he said, pausing a moment. "The whole area is pulled so tightly, I can't tell where-"

Another breath and they flashed into the edge of another wood, Getz cutting Clef off with a shout of "What took you so long?" the moment they appeared. Standing next to him was - the man from the jewellery stall?

"Forgive me for not being an earth mage like you two," Clef bit out, just as the ground bucked beneath their feet. "It took a few leaps to get the location. Where's Rio?"

"Doing some mystic water-spirit crap out that way." Getz waved a hand out toward where the ground was shuddering the worst. "But he's obviously not holding it very well. That's what you get when you have someone with a water affinity doing an earth mage's job."

"He's only one person, and you’re the one who said both of us should stay here to hold it where it’s crumbling," the jeweller said, then turned to Clef. "Like last time?"

"Yes.”

“It’s worse than it was then,” Getz grouched, and Umi realised he was sweating with the force of a spell that he was trying to hold - trying to keep the land steady under them?

“Lead the way." Clef tugged Umi on with him as they followed the two men over the edge of a sharp ridge. Just beyond, the ground was split by a long cleft, perhaps ten metres long and _growing_. Umi bit back a yelp when it groaned open further with a sound not unlike tearing cloth. The ground beneath her boots shivered with every rip as it expanded, and still they approached it, stopping a bare two feet from the edge.

"You sure we don't want to just let the blasted thing become an island?" Getz muttered, at the same time as the jeweller said "You've petitioned the Council again, haven't you?"

"If this isn't enough to get them to see reason and actually appoint someone already, I don't know what is." Clef sounded absolutely serious, too much to even sound angry, though Umi could tell he was that, too, as he dropped her hand and stared down at the earth with the same fierce concentration he’d worn when all of Cephiro was falling apart. The air crackled around him as he reached out and summoned his staff, and as soon as it was in his hands, he turned towards her. "Umi, I need you to pull the groundwater back from this break."

Umi blinked at him, cast a momentary glance down at the now nearly fifteen-metre long gash, and looked back at him again with wide eyes. "What?"

"I need to heat the rock beneath us until it's pliable enough for Getz and Holbio to move it. That's easier to do without the water becoming steam in the process and getting, er, explosive. Normally, Rio would do it for us, but he's a bit busy right now keeping the _rest_ of Honda from sinking into the ocean."

"Clef, I've _never_ moved that much water at once." She'd only seriously started playing about and manipulating little bits of water the last few days, and it hadn't ended very well - especially not the one time she’d tried moving anything larger. Even if she wasn’t drunk right now as she had been when the fountain went everywhere, the thought of exploding the ground beneath them like she'd done Clef's paperwork was absolutely terrifying.

Clef was using his calmest teacher's voice - the one which normally irritated Umi to no end. "You can do this, Umi. Just take hold and pull back. Like opening the pages of a book. Or - more pushing a set of doors open, I suppose, we don’t want it to stay connected in the middle."

Umi took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She'd never actually moved real water she couldn't see, either. There had been a few magic practices where she cast a dragon through objects to hit a target, but that was spell-water, and it worked differently. But she pushed aside the panic with sheer willpower, and concentrated.

Deep down, she could feel the cool dampness of the groundwater as it passed under them. It was poised as if waiting for her, but tangled into it was another spell, pulled tight and holding. "Someone's already -"

"That's Rio. Push past his magic and open a clear path to the rock for  
me."

Taking hold and concentrating so hard her hands were trembling, Umi pulled the water apart with the same gentle care she used when opening the oldest of the brittle law books Clef was currently reading. She could feel the ghost of the water against her hands, like the cool start of pins and needles, and she turned her palms out and slowly, slowly, pushed it to either side of the crevasse. 

"Good." Clef moved and Umi felt the heat of his spell surge between the waves of water she was holding. It felt like having your hands in a sink of cold water just as someone else turned on the hot water tap. The rush of it sent an excited thrill through her even now, but she grit her teeth and ignored that too.

The heat grew steadily stronger both in the magic and in the air around the opening, until beads of sweat were trickling down Umi's forehead and the back of her neck. Once it was almost too hot to bear, the earth began to slowly pull together as the heat began to wriggle. Only then did Umi fully understand what they were doing. They were literally stitching the ground back together with _molten rock_. In her surprise, she almost lost her hold on the water and had to hastily tighten her grip.

She was gasping hard for air by the time they finished, a sharp tightness growing in her chest, but she managed to keep it back.

.*.*.*.

There was an overwhelming sense of pride sitting in Clef's chest at Umi's spellwork as he closed off the spell, leaving the area somewhat more stable than it had been; it should hold another week, anyway. She'd come a long way from the brute-force of only a few years ago. 

He reached out a hand and set it on her arm. "We're finished, darling. You can let go now."

The tension dropped from Umi's shoulders as she let out an audible gasp of relief. She swayed lightly on her feet and he held her as she sank to the ground, until they were both sitting on the edge of jagged scar in the earth. Umi dropped her head on his shoulder, still catching her breath.

"I told you that you could do it," he said.

"What would you have done if I couldn't have?"

"Taken far longer and given us a thorough steaming rather than a dry roasting."

Getz and Holbio trudged toward them from opposite ends of the now-closed fissure, both looking equally worse for the wear, but still more with it than the wilting Umi beside him. Before they'd even made it over, Holbio was pulling a bottle of something out of the gem in his ring, and took a long drink out of it before handing it over to Getz. When he dropped to the ground beside Clef, Getz passed it over.

It was cool spring water flavoured with some sharp fruit juice Clef couldn’t quite name. He took a long draft of it, and another, before offering it to Umi next. "Drink a little. It'll help."

"It felt like that whole section was going to fall off," Umi said, taking the bottle from him.

"That's because it was trying its best to."

Umi nearly choked on the drink. “Why's Cephiro trying to fall apart? I thought -"

"The land's being supported by the people now, but that's malleable and changeable as anything. Which is why we created the ward system and appointed wardens and mage circles to each ward, remember? To give some stability to things. But even if my whole Circle is strong, we're not strong enough to hold _two_ wards together at once, no matter how much the Council want us to. Not when Honda has this many nonsense ideas of its own!"

Umi leaned back into him as she finished drinking. "Why're they wanting you to?"

"Staffing problems," Getz said, flopping back in the grass. "It's always staffing problems. And they think Clef should be able to hold this whole region together given he did an okay job holding Cephiro together there for a while. You know, if you ignore the bit where she still crumbled around our ears before being reborn."

Tossing a handful of loose grass at Getz, Clef wrapped his other arm about Umi’s waist. "I could, possibly, hold bare rock, if it wasn’t constantly changing and I wasn’t doing a hundred other things at the same time and if it was formed sensibly. We’re still settling Mazda, we don’t have the energy to spare for this much upheaval. But the land is trying to pull together new areas before we've got everyone who could stand as Warden properly qualified. While _I'd_ be happy to appoint people who haven't passed exams yet, the Mage's Guild and the Council disagree with that, so we’re at a stand-off." 

Clef sighed and took another drink from the bottle when Umi passed it back, then handed it on to Getz. He'd had so many arguments about this in Council he'd just given up. 

“Your Guild is ignoring you again?” Umi asked, amused. 

Clef huffed. "I don’t know why I don’t just quit as Guru some days. They could at least appoint an interim warden until it's solid. Someone to guide it, rather than letting it do whatever this one is trying to do."

"Instead it’s growing on its own and is now trying to crumble like a badly tempered blade," Holbio said, before leaning forward to look around Clef at Umi. "I'm Holbio, by the way. We never were properly introduced this morning."

"That's because Clef should have done the introduction, but he’s a terrible host," Getz said. "He's barely shown poor Umi the house, let alone Mazda, and she's already been here five days."

Umi stifled a giggle and smiled as she leaned around Clef. "I'm Ryuuzaki Umi."

“Knight of water,” Clef added, glaring half-heartedly at Getz.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Knight," Holbio said with a broad grin. "I expect we'll see more of you in the future?"

"Hopefully," Umi agreed. "If Clef agrees to let me visit again. He might decide I'm more trouble than I'm worth."

"Hey!" Clef jerked his head round to look at Umi who just leaned into his side and beamed at him, radiating smugness. “...You know what, you should have a present for managing that spell so well. You can have Honda. That’ll give you somewhere to stay.”

Snorting, Umi thumped him on the shoulder. “No, thanks. Besides, I’m not qualified either.”

“Magic Knight sits outside the Guild hierarchy, I could probably argue it,” he told her.

Holbio laughed at both of them and put the bottle back into his ring before pushing himself up to his feet. "Getz and I can go check more of the border while the lady rests a while longer, make sure there aren’t any more of these nonsense sandstone ridges trying to erode away already. Hopefully, we won't need to do that again today, though. I'm feeling a bit stretched thin. I wouldn't mind a ride back, if you're not transporting?"

"I'll summon someone when Rio turns back up," Clef agreed. He was too tired to be using a translocation spell for both himself and Umi after that. "You're more than welcome to hitch a ride, if you wouldn't mind coming back to the house to help with the report?"

"If there’s food and a bed, I'm more than happy to go home with you." Holbio waved and trudged off down the hill along the edge of the border between the two wards, Getz following behind him a moment later.

"So the jeweller is a mage?" Umi asked

"Holbio?" Clef turned to her. "He's the Head Smith of Mazda, and - yes - he's a very strong earth mage as well." 

“Like Getz?”

“Mm. They help balance me out in the Circle - they can ground my power. Makes us more stable.”

"He's part of your _Circle_?" Umi sat up and looked slightly worried.

Clef picked up her hand and pressed his palm over the gem on the bracelet she'd put the promise-box into and smiled. "You don't mind some random smith knowing about us, but a member of my Circle worries you? Honestly, darling, if anything it should be the other way around."

"But -"

"The same goes for him as for the main household. I chose my people because I can trust them, as much as anything else." He lifted her hand to his lips. "Besides, they’ve all been interested in meeting you since Kalos and Brisa started gossiping about my having invited you out here."

Umi blushed and pulled her hand away. "I forgot to ask," she said, voice soft. "What's the quote on the box from, anyway? He said it was a famous love-story?"

"It's the tale of Acura - or Accura, depending upon who tells it," Clef explained. "The stories vary about who exactly she was, but they all agree she was very powerful.” Relaxing his shoulders, Clef leaned back on his hands and stared up at the sky while he tried to recall the main points of the story. “It was during the fall of one of the pillars, everything was happening so fast - you’ve seen it - and she knew enough to realise that things were going to go very badly, so she tried to send her lover away. Far way, mind you, to one of the other countries around here at the time. "

"And her lover refused?"

"Yes. Very loudly. Probably shouting like someone I know.” Clef grinned at Umi, who gave him a playful shove. “It’s that stubborn declaration that gets remembered. 'Where you go, I'll go, and where you stay, I'll stay. I'll die where you die, and be buried beside you. And may Cephiro strike me down if anything but death parts me from your side.' Or something like that. It's a been a century or two since I've read or seen any version of it, actually."

There was consideration in Umi's expression as she tilted her head. "That sounds a bit like a marriage vow."

"Does it?" Clef turned to look at her as he tried to recall her explanation of what 'marriage' constituted. "That's the legal one, right?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. You didn't make it sound nearly that romantic when you explained it to me." Her description had been entirely about property, inheritance rights, and all the paperwork involved. There had been nothing about emotion that he could recall.

Umi flicked some dirt at him, and then laughed. "Well, I was trying to accept it as a practical thing. I mean, my only career aspiration at the time was being a wife so I could make my husband run the family company while I did other things.”

“...Why am I not surprised you weren’t interested in doing it yourself?” he said, teasing gently. 

Umi stuck her tongue out at him. “Well, I want to become a Kairu, and I certainly can't do that if I'm running a business in Tokyo. Though I definitely shouldn’t be coming over here to visit you, if I married someone else." 

“It’s an exclusive thing, then?” he asked, and Umi blinked. 

“Yes? ...Hikaru said Lantis asked the same thing. Is it that unusual to have one permanent partner in Cephiro?”

“Not unusual, as such, but it’s up to the people involved how exclusive it is. It’s not… set, in the way I think you’re meaning.”

Umi shook her head. “Cephiro’s weird,” she muttered, and he tried not to grin at her flush as she thought about that. She hoisted herself up to her feet and dragged him up too, and they slowly started walking the direction Getz and Holbio had vanished. "Anyway, marriage is about more than just legal paperwork. You usually marry someone because you love them, and you want to be with them. It’s a declaration that your relationship is serious enough to be considered permanent. I guess it's not unlike that whole gift thing, in a way, but a lot more public. And it used to happen _before_ the sex."

Clef stopped walking. "Do you want me to marry you?"

Nearly tripping over, Umi spun around to face him, eyes gone wide. " _What_?" 

He repeated himself, “Do you want to marry me?”

Umi went very, very still as she stared at him with disbelieving eyes. Then she took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose at him, putting a hand on her hip. "Do you even know anything about technology?"

It took him a moment to connect that back to her mother’s company, and her requirement for someone to run it. "Only that I end up exploding at least one thing every time I visit Autozam," Clef stepped closer, trying to smile. It was a ridiculous thing to ask, he knew, and wouldn’t change anything. But he really wanted to know if she wanted to stay by him. 

The way he wanted to stay with her, as long as the world would let him. 

"That wasn't an answer."

Umi’s composure crumbled. "Clef, you can't even _date_ me, so what's the point of discussing _marriage_?" She flailed her hands at him. "Even if you could, I'm from another world. Marriage doesn't exist here! We don't even know if we could get you to _my_ world, and then you'd need identification and things that you don't have and can’t get for the paperwork. So, even if you wanted to, we can't!"

Clef was watching her more than he was listening to her words, and that strong a reaction set him hoping, badly enough he failed to stop himself saying "Is that a yes, then?"

Umi shoved him hard on the shoulder, sending him sliding a few steps down the side of the hill as she stormed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments are love!


	9. In which Clef shows Umi more of his vast tracts of land

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will probably come back and write a more coherent note later. I also might come back and do another read through edit of this tomorrow (especially before I cut it down for FFN), but I wanted to get this up tonight. I had a long day in London with passport renewal nonsense and I wanted to share something good. 
> 
> Here is a chapter that is rather a lot of indulgent fluff.

"Do you want me to marry you?" were words Umi never expected to hear from Clef's mouth. It startled her so badly she nearly fell over her own feet. 

Convinced she must have misheard him - because he _could not_ have asked her that - she blurted an incredibly confused, " _What_?"

“Do you want to marry me?” Clef repeated, speaking slower, as though he wasn’t certain he’d used the right word - or he wasn’t certain she’d understood it. Which was true, she didn’t understand his words, but only because he was the one saying them. She stared at him, feeling almost ill with the hope he meant it - and the sure, sickening knowledge he couldn’t.

Even if he was serious in asking, even if they could have made that happen somehow, he couldn't do anything about it - he wasn't _allowed_. 

Umi reached desperately for a way to make it a joke, willing him to play along so she could try to forget this conversation ever happened. He certainly wouldn't be her parents’ first choice to help take on the family business, for a multitude of reasons.

"Do you even know anything about technology?" she asked.

"Only that I end up exploding at least one thing every time I visit Autozam," he said, with half a grin and Umi started to breathe a sigh of relief around the heaviness in her chest. But then Clef stepped closer, his face serious. "That wasn't an answer."

He couldn't be doing this. In so many ways he couldn't be doing this. What made it a thousand times worse what that she wanted to say yes. She wanted all of this - all of the past few days - to be her _every_ day. 

Maybe not the whole ‘Cephiro falling apart’ thing; she could live without that. But spending evenings together, curling up close to him to sleep, and - even if she’d only done it once so far - waking up to him in the morning.

"Clef, you can't even _date_ me, so what's the point of discussing _marriage_?" she shouted at him, gesturing wildly. Tears pricked at her eyes as she continued. "Even if you could, I'm from another world. Marriage doesn't exist here! We don't even know if we could get you to _my_ world, and then you'd need identification and things that you _don't have_ and can’t get for the paperwork. So, even if you wanted to, we can't!"

He still had the nerve to ask, "Is that a yes, then?"

His lips twitched up in the tiniest smile, almost a smirk, utterly infuriating. She was so tempted to slap her hand right across his face and wipe that look off it. Instead, she shoved him hard in the shoulder, sending him skidding down the path as she stormed off.

If Umi knew how to get back to the house on her own, she would have done it then.

Clef called, "Umi, wait!" His boots crunched along the path as he jogged to catch up with her a moment later.

Umi spun around so hard her feet threw up a spray of gravel. "You're an idiot!" she shouted. "A big fucking idiot!" Tears streamed down her face. "You're the most foolish man I’ve ever known!"

She slammed her hands into his chest when he reached her, resting her fists against his chest as he murmured her name, sounding contrite. It made the tears come faster still.

"You've spent _months_ telling me that this can't be a relationship. I accepted that. I knew before I came here that, no matter what happened this week, we were going back to holding hands where no one can see and kissing behind closed doors." She curled her hands tighter, nails digging into her palms. "Now you're telling me you want more than that and you don't want to pretend. You've given me a promise-box and you're asking me to _marry_ you. You can't have it both ways, Clef!" She thumped one of her fists against his chest again. 

"I'm sorry," Clef murmured, stepping in closer. "I honestly didn't mean to upset you."

"Then don't offer me things I can't have!" Umi huffed out a broken laugh, leaning against him, pressing her face into the curve of his neck as his arms wrapped around her "You really are an idiot. Admit it."

"I have been a complete and unmitigated prat," he said, his breath hot across the bare line of skin at her neck. "I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry."

Umi slid her arms around him and held on. Normally, she'd feel a little guilty for getting his robes wet, but it was his own fault she was crying in the first place. When she finally did pull back, Clef handed her a handkerchief, with another softly whispered apology. Umi dried her eyes but didn't actually move away again until a set of footsteps crunched on the gravel path behind her.

"We should talk about this later," Clef said, pressing a soft kiss to her temple before he pulled away from her and turned toward the new arrival. "Ah, Rio, how do things look further in?"

"It's still as spongy as your first attempts at that unusual confection of yours, but it should hold for now."

Wiping her eyes and just rubbing at her wet nose - she wasn't going to blow it in front of someone else - Umi turned around and found herself an utterly striking man. He was probably a head taller than either her or Clef, with ridiculously long hair that was loosely caught by his waist. It was the sort of hair you saw in illustrations, that never seemed to get tangled. His skin was golden, a few shades darker than hers, but it had the most unusual translucent iridescence.

"You're the water mage, I take it," he said, fixing his dark green eyes on her.

Umi just blinked at him, startled into silence, so it was Clef who introduced her. "This is Ryuuzaki Umi, the Knight of Water."

"Yes, of course she is." Rio agreed. "I wouldn't expect you to have anyone else with you today."

Clef huffed, probably at the evidence everyone was apparently gossiping about them. "Holbio’s going to ride back to the house with us. Would you also come back and help draft the report on this mess?"

Tilting his head gracefully, Rio looked hopeful. "Will there be any more of that confection at the house?"

"Not unless someone else decided to do some experimenting while we were out, I'm afraid."

"That's a pity," Rio sighed. "But I will return with you anyway."

"Thank you." Clef let go of Umi's arm and walked a few steps to pick up his staff. Umi hadn't even noticed him dropping it, too busy shouting at him. With a quiet word and a rush of magic swirling about them, his griffin appeared on the hillside and Umi couldn't help but smile at its curious eyes.

"Hello, old friend." She stepped beside Clef to stroke the feathers down the side of its neck. They were just as silky smooth as she remembered. The griffin bent his head and nuzzled Umi, knocking her off balance and into Clef, who caught her and held on until Getz and Holbio returned, Getz looking put out when he spotted Rio standing there placidly. The griffin was happy to carry them all.

.*.*.*.

The informal dining area was decidedly crowded that evening. Not only did they have two additional people, but Kalos and Brisa - who Clef had assumed would stay at their own house in the village as usual for this part of the week - were sitting at the table when they walked in. 

"Why are you still here?" Clef snapped at them. "I thought you went home."

"Well, we did," Brisa said. "And since it hadn't fallen down while we were away, we thought we'd be safe to come back."

Kalos nodded. "We were afraid you might miss us if we stayed away too long." 

At least they were without either of their apprentices. With Elysion and Aygo squeezed together onto one end of the table and Aveo summoning a few extra chairs they all had space to sit, just not a large one.

"What I miss is having a quiet house," Clef said, dropping into the first empty seat. "You're just here so you can have more to gossip about next week."

Umi snickered as she sat down beside him. Meanwhile, Getz fetched another stack of crockery, and Holbio set three more places. Rio sat down across from them, picking up a piece of bread as soon as there was a plate in front of him. 

The original conversation on the hillside continued through dinner, after what had happened was explained to Kalos and Brisa. (Aveo knew already, of course. She wasn’t Seneschal for nothing.) There was lots of complaining about bureaucracy, and a general consensus that something should have been done by now, but it was probably their own fault for not having been loud enough about it. Or rather, it was Clef who was blamed for not being loud enough, since he was the one representing the lot of them at the Council.

He pulled a face at Getz for that. "Well, forgive me for having two jobs I need to be doing, while also trying to have a life. It’s not easy jamming Warden and Guru and myself all into one seat every meeting." 

"I'm not begrudging you the life, mate," Getz said, spearing some meat with his fork. "Because - believe me - you could use a bit of levity, but perhaps it's not as urgent as holding the blasted world together."

Umi shifted uncomfortably beside him and Clef reached out to her to take her hand, actually glaring at Getz now, who fidgeted in his seat. "I’ve been loud, anyway. It's not my fault the neither the Guild nor the Council will listen to reason."

“It was only a little bit of the world, anyway,” Holbio said, cheerfully. “And not a part of it that we’re actually meant to be looking out for, either.”

Rio didn’t stop tearing the newest piece of bread he’d taken, but added, “There will be trouble should Honda fall. We are connected too strongly to escape it.”

Like most of Rio’s pronouncements, it was true, and slightly uncomfortable to think about. Clef _liked_ Rio, but he did have a habit of disconcerting everyone. Sometimes months after the relevant statement.

"It's not like there is ever a good time to push through any of the current repeals," Aveo said. "Even the ones that are more dear to particular Council members. There's too much work to do and not nearly enough time to do it in, trying to rewrite the rules of the entire world before they cause too many interesting problems."

After the fruit plate went around the table one last time, Clef stood with a heavy sigh. "Let's get this over with."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Umi asked. "I mean, I was there too."

"You'd probably rather do something other than watch us argue the wording of a report for the next few hours." It wasn't that he wouldn't like Umi to keep them company, but he'd rather not subject her to Getz's helpful comments, or the general grumping and occasional shouting that always seemed to happen. "This lot can tell me how it started. That's the bit we need to possibly get some sort of assistance."

"I'll see you later then." A cloud of disappointment drifted over Umi's face for a brief moment before she smiled and said, "Brisa was telling me about some dice game the other day. Maybe we can play it?" She cast a glance at Brisa who nodded brightly.

"Be careful playing Hazard with Kalos," Getz warned. "She cheats."

"Do not!" Kalos shot back, before turning to Umi. "Don't listen to him. He's just a sore loser."

"Nobody gets sixes that many times in a row!" Getz called as he followed Clef, Holbio, and Rio out of the room, and up to the ground floor where Clef's public office was located near the front door. Getz was still muttering "She totally cheats" when he dropped into one of the spare chairs.

Holbio was the first to pick up a pen from the organised chaos that was Clef's desktop. "Why don't we start from when this began today," he said, turning to Rio.

.*.*.*.

They were still in the middle of debating the final wording (and whether it should be the same for the Council as the Guild of Mages) when Umi peered in the doorway. Her skin was flushed pink, and the little wisps of hair around her face were damp, presumably from a hot bath. She had changed her clothes as well, and was now in another of those dresses from her world. This one was a bit more modest than some, the straps nearly three fingers wide and the skirt brushing the tops of her knees. 

He still couldn’t look away from her.

"Good evening, my Lady," Holbio said, smiling as he turned to Clef. "We can finish this. We've kept you from her long enough." His hand was in the middle of Clef's back, pushing him toward the door before he even had a chance to argue.

"Oh, go on," Getz laughed, as Aveo rolled her eyes next to him.

Clef nearly stumbled into Umi as he was all but shoved out of his own office. The door shut firmly behind him, a flicker coming down over it as Aveo cast her own ward to keep him out. 

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Umi said, glancing behind him at the closed door. "If you need to keep working, I can leave you alone."

"I don’t think they'll let me back in." Clef waved a hand behind himself. "We were almost finished anyway. Was there something you needed?"

Umi's already pink cheeks went a brighter shade of red as she chewed on her bottom lip and looked at him. Her eyes only stayed on his face a briefly before drifting down the length of his body only to snap back to his face a moment later, her lips twitching. “Um…”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” he said, but he was grinning too, and Umi laughed aloud, leaning in to press her lips to his cheek. 

Without another word, Clef slipped his hand into hers and led her back toward the stairs. They were nearly up to his bit of the house when he slowed down, stopping at the top of the stairs to say, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Ignoring me all evening, or asking me to marry you when you can't?" she looked at him with a serious expression on her face, but her tone of voice was almost playful.

He relaxed, a tension he hadn’t realised he was still holding melting out of his shoulders. "Both?" Clef offered. "Definitely both."

"Prove it," Umi said, grabbing hold of his head and tugging him into a sharp kiss. The rush of magic pouring off her sent him staggering into her, she stumbled back a few steps before bumping into the wall. Her hands never left him, and she never broke the kiss. Instead, she opened her mouth and urged him on with lips and teeth.

"I didn't ask you to marry me," Clef said, breathlessly, his entire body was trembling as he pressed another rough kiss to her cheek, then one below her ear.

Umi arched into him, her fingers tightening in his hair and on the fabric of his robes. "Sure sounded like you did."

"I wanted to know if you were interested in the idea," he said, then nipped lightly at Umi's neck, and she let out a shuddering gasp. “If we could -” He pressed another feather-light kiss to her skin “- if you would want to keep me?”

"I'm not answering that question until you can actually follow through with it,” Umi said, her voice trembling almost as much as she was.

It was probably as much of an answer as he deserved. He kissed her again, until they were both breathless and nearly vibrating with the need to be even closer, skin to skin. Blindly, he reached sideways for the door handle of the nearest bedroom and opened it.

This still wasn’t talking, but they could always do that in the morning.

.*.*.*.

The next morning, Umi woke up alone, in a strange room, wearing nothing but the bedsheets. Clutching them to herself as she sat up, she blinked at the sunlight coming in the open curtains and looked around, disappointed that Clef wasn’t beside her. 

The room was like the bedroom she'd been given, but slightly smaller, and far more utilitarian. Aside from the bed, there were two small side tables and a single wardrobe, none of it decorated like the things in most of the rooms. Just simple clean lines, well made. A little table sat in front of the window, the same as it did in her room, with a covered dinner-tray sat atop it.

Umi stared at the tray, remembering how they had stumbled into the closest room instead of reaching either of their bedrooms, the corridor apparently too long for them to wait. She’d not been paying attention to the room or to anything but Clef, the way they touched each other with an intensity like they were trying to stake a claim on one another.

At the foot of the bed lay one of her dresses from home and fresh underwear, along with a dressing gown, presumably so she could get along the corridor if she wanted something different. It was strange to think of someone else picking her clothes when it wasn’t for a special occasion… but then, given Clef had made their armour, it wasn’t precisely the first time he’d done similar. She grinned at the thought as she picked up what he’d left her, content with the little grey dress. 

She was happy to find a towel, soap, and even a new toothbrush and toothpaste waiting for her in the en-suite. 

Were all the upstairs rooms fully supplied for guests? Probably - and yet Clef never invited anyone to stay with him. She snickered at the thought all the way through her shower.

Once clean and dressed, Umi sat down to investigate the breakfast tray. The moment she touched the handle, a spell arched off of it with the snap of a static shock before dissipating in a shower of glittering sparks; an alert spell of some sort. The food was more interesting. Her meal consisted of thinly cut strips of smoked fatty meat - basically the Cephiran idea of bacon - that had been fried until crispy, more flatbreads with two choices of spread, a bowl of the diced vegetable salad that came out every meal time with a dollop of a rich creamy dressing, and a large glass of fruit juice.

She was about halfway through the meat and bread - the spicy fruit spread went really nicely with the two as a sort of sandwich - when Clef opened the bedroom door with a perfunctory knock as he walked in.

"Good morning," Umi greeted him, brightly.

Clef laughed. "It's past midday."

"Close enough." Umi shrugged, asking "Why didn't you wake me up?" before taking another bite.

"I thought you could use the rest." Clef sat down in the other chair and set down the tea tray he was holding. "You didn't miss much. Just a meeting with most of the Circle to go over what happened yesterday, a long call with an officer of the Mage's Guild, and another with Dokker, Dacia’s Warden." He poured two cups of tea, adding a spoonful of the honey-like sweetener syrup to his cup and giving it a stir. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, actually." Umi picked up her cup of tea and looked over it at him. "How many rooms do you have up here, anyway - are they all bedrooms?"

"You’ve been in my study, Umi, so, no. They aren’t all bedrooms. There’s also a sitting room in the middle which I fail to use. Including our bedrooms and my study, there are thirteen rooms on this corridor."

"And they are your private wing?" she asked, wondering why he needed over a dozen bedrooms.

"I told you the house was built on the memories of the one I grew up in. This is the family wing. Our rooms would have been my parents', and my study is where my old bedroom was."

Umi raised an eyebrow at him, while trying not to smirk. "And whose bedroom would this be?"

"One of my sisters," he said.

"Older or younger?"

"Older. I was the youngest of eleven."

"Wow, that's a lot of children." Umi blinked at him, trying to imagine how someone could end up with eleven children. Hikaru being the youngest of four still made her flinch sometimes. Mama had said one was enough, and Umi still wasn’t entirely convinced by the whole pregnancy and baby thing herself. It seemed… _uncomfortable_. "What was your mother thinking?"

"Probably 'Shit, guess that potion didn't work' or something along those lines." Clef picked up his tea and drank it, looking wistfully out the window over the garden.

"Sorry, I didn't mean -"

"Oh, it wasn't that they didn't want me when I arrived. Just… well, my closest sibling was a few centuries older, and they'd planned to stop with her. They were getting on in years, and - well - I had barely finished my apprenticeship before they passed on."

"I'm sorry." Umi looked down at her hands, feeling awkward.

"I don't mind talking about them." He put his hand over hers and smiled gently. "Still. While I don't mind talking about my past, you might rather I teach you why your shields aren't working?"

Her head shot up. "Wait. What happened to you not teaching me any magic?"

"I still technically have about a dozen lessons worth of leeway before you’re my apprentice by default." He grinned. “I wasn’t planning on getting anywhere close to it. One more won’t hurt.”

Umi thumped him on the shoulder. "And it took you this long to decide to tell me?"

"When else have I had time for a proper lesson? I was going to suggest it yesterday afternoon, but things got… complicated. I’m only offering the one, mind, not a dozen. But I’ll make it as thorough a lesson as I can manage in an afternoon." He set his cup back on the tray and waved at her now mostly empty plate. "Are you finished?"

They gathered the dishes together and headed out. 

"Hey, Clef," Umi said as they walked toward the kitchen. "How long does it take to get a new law through the Council?"

"The quickest bills take eight sessions from Introduction to Ratification,” Clef said, “but I think the average has been around ten sessions lately. Things keep getting held up in committee debates."

"That's _months_!"

"And that's after the few weeks it usually takes to argue something onto the agenda if enough of the others don't think it worth bothering with yet. I mean, there are plenty of laws that need reworking. The stuff about the weather is still getting tangled."

"I still can't believe there are laws controlling the weather," Umi muttered.

Cephiro's government met once a fortnight unless there was a pressing emergency. Ten council sessions was five months. Literally, as there were exactly four weeks to every Cephiran month. With thirteen months a year making a grand total of twenty-six scheduled meetings, it was amazing how much they had gotten done since the reformation. 

Well, they didn't just argue one bill at a time. There was just so much to get through and - how was Clef going to get the other two laws repealed anytime soon?

Wait, five months to get one bill forward meant Clef had argued that onto the schedule within weeks of her kissing him. He really _had_ been working on this from the beginning. 

"You actually did spend the past few months making it legal for us to have sex, didn't you?"

"It's not like I had a choice in the order," Clef grumbled. "I would have rather gotten this next one out of the way first."

"Isn’t that one just feelings?"

"I happen to _have_ feelings, thank you. And perhaps I’d like to be able to hold your hand in public, and not have to hide us away to kiss you."

"And not have to invite me out to the middle of nowhere so you can sleep with me?"

"I didn't-" He flushed bright red. "Don’t you think about anything besides sex?"

"I like magic," Umi told him, grinning. "And sex and magic go pretty well together."

"Oh, come on." Clef shoved his handful of crockery on the kitchen counter, grabbed her hand, and dragged her out the door.

.*.*.*.

"Why do I even put up with you?" Clef said as he led a gleefully cackling Umi up the hill.

"Because you _like_ me?" She drew out the third word like one would a childish taunt, before casting a glance back at the house. "Hey, why aren't we using the training room for this?"

"It's a nice day," Clef answered. "And you'll like the warmth of the sun a lot better after our third soaking, I'm sure."

"You just don't want to clean it up if it gets soggy, do you?" Umi bumped her shoulder against his as they slowed down near the top of the hill.

"Well, there's that too." He stopped them a little way above the uinka orchard; the runoff would probably be good for the trees. "Why did you want to know about the Council, anyway?"

"Oh, I just wondered if there was a chance of you getting the next repeal through in the next six months," Umi said breezily, but not quite looking at him.

"Any particular reason why?"

"I was giving everything a lot of thought last night - you know, while you left me _all alone_ ," Umi said, and Clef couldn't help but roll his eyes. She’d won a fair bit of money off Kalos and Brisa while she was ‘all alone’, from what he'd heard that morning. "You know how I said I want to go to the Academy after I graduate from school?"

That was enough of a lead-in to get his full focus. Not that it took much for Umi to get his attention these days. "Yes?"

"I know there are student halls and I also have the room I share with Hikaru and Fuu," she continued, her voice going slightly higher pitched as she sped up in a rush to get her words out. "But would it be alright - would you mind if I stayed with you instead?"

The entire world went quiet as he stared at her. "You want to move in with me?"

"Don't look at me like that! You were the one talking about marriage yesterday." She rubbed her face, her cheeks bright. "I just want to - I like this, you know? I like me and you - the whole _together_ thing."

"You ridiculous person." Clef let out a startled laugh. "Why did you think I was asking you that?"

"I know, but -" She pulled a face at him, and he let out a proper laugh. "Oh, shut up! I mean I can wait until the third law if it would get into the whole you - what is it - ‘supporting me’ thing?"

"No, it should be fine. All students and apprentices receive a stipend for necessities, you wouldn’t be reliant on me, just… cohabiting." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her with what had to be an absolutely silly smile on his face. "So long the second repeal is through and I don't try to use you moving in as an excuse to extend my rooms, no one should mind."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes, of course, you can move in with me. I have no idea why you would want to - I'm a grumpy old clod - but I would be happy to have you."

.*.*.*.

Umi was practically buzzing with the emotions tumbling through her. This wasn't an impossible future like marriage was. This wasn't Clef putting her off or saying it was a bad idea. This was a concrete plan for their future - _together_!

Bouncing forward two steps, she threw her arms around Clef's neck and kissed him, combing her fingers through the soft wisps of hair at the nape of his neck

A few lingering moments later, Clef pulled back just far enough to speak. "Do we need to forget this lesson, and just go back to the house?"

The temptation to say yes was terribly strong. But Clef had finally agreed to another magic lesson, and she wasn't going to let him talk his way back out of it now.

" _Shields_. You're teaching me shields,” Umi declared. “And I'm not letting you convince me otherwise."

Umi watched Clef try to pull a serious expression onto his face as he took a step back, but he kept lapsing into a grin the moment he forgot he was being a serious teacher.

"The thing you need to remember is that the spell itself is not exclusively for shielding, it can be used for a number of things, such as wards on doors and objects. You can even use it as a monitoring or alarm spell."

"I don't need an entire theory lesson," Umi groused.

"Who's teaching here?" Clef said. "You need to know what you can do with a spell. If you plan to actually take proper lessons -"

"I know! But you made it sound like this was going to be a _practical_ lesson."

"So picky."

Umi stuck her tongue out at him

Clef laughed and took another step back. Running his fingers over her shoulders and down her arms with a ticklishly light touch he took hold of her hands and lifted them up toward him. "Hands like so."

"Obviously," Umi said, half tempted to give him a shove since her hands were so conveniently placed for it, but he stepped out of the way immediately. He moved to stand behind her, his fingertips trailing back up her arm as he went, giving her goosebumps.

The kiss he pressed to the side of her neck had absolutely nothing to do with the spell. Umi shook him off, laughing. "That's not shielding."

"Just testing your concentration," Clef chuckled in her ear as he ran his hands down to her forearms, his magic humming strongly against her skin.

"Tease."

Clef hummed happily in agreement before adjusting her posture again. She wasn't sure she needed to be pressed that firmly back against him for this, but she was enjoying the steady thrum of his power enveloping her. "Now you need to concentrate on pressing the magic out of your hands at a steady pace. Too fast and you'll lose control of it, and both of us will be soaked in the blowback."

Umi reached for the centre of her magic. The cool well in her chest still felt a little shallow after the work she'd done the day before, but she grabbed hold of it and felt the sensation of it rolling down her arms, catching momentarily on the touch of Clef's hand, the spark of the meeting sending a small tremor through her.

At the front of her mind were thoughts of ice and glass, and that was what she was making as she pushed the magic out - a thin, curved sheet of ice."It doesn't need to be frozen,” Clef murmured. “Just concentrate on holding the water around us."

"But ice is solid,” Umi argued. It made more sense to use ice. What was wrong with ice?

"And doesn't flow. The best shields are moving - think of Fuu’s," Clef said, and she concentrated until it was water coalescing in front of them. "There, that’s better. Now, this spell can be pressed into walls if you can tap into the raw power - obviously, you don't want to put actual water into the walls."

"Think of the mould." Umi giggled, her hold faltering and the sheet of ice shattered at their feet.

Water was easier to guide out, but it kept getting excited and splintering - possibly because Umi kept getting _distracted_. It took three tries to get a fairly stable sheet of water held up in front of her. About five more - maybe more like fifteen, but Umi wasn’t going to count a few of those tries - to curl it around into a cylinder she could just about hold steady. Getting it to become a sphere was even more difficult, not helped by the strengthening pulse of Clef’s magic against her own, and the way he kept trailing his lips over her neck, against her ear.

Finally, Umi snapped, dropped her spell - showering them in a downpour of cold water - and turned around in Clef's arms to kiss him hard, only pulling back a moment later to complain, "You're an awful teacher, you can't even keep on task."

"You should probably find someone else, then." His hands held sparks against her hips as he pulled her closer.

"But my current teacher teaches me so many things."

Clef choked on a laugh. "You're the awful one."

"I never said I wasn't." Umi grabbed hold of his hand and dragged him back toward the path. "And I hope you're happy because I'm never going to be able to concentrate now."

Umi looked at how far the house was - possibly a half mile away. Then she glanced over at the orchard, the trees casting deep shadows in the late afternoon light. 

She hauled Clef off the path and practically slammed him against the nearest tree trunk. His magic flared up so strongly he let off a visible shower of sparks.

.*.*.*.

He might have let himself get a little carried away teasing Umi, but Clef wasn't going to complain at her dragging him back to the house to do something about it. He wasn’t expecting her to drag him into the orchard and pin him back against a tree.

The intensity in her eyes, combined with the power in her touch made his power flare up like a lightning storm. The effect was impossible to disguise, and all he could think was that she was more than welcome to do that again.

"You really like it when I do that, don't you?" Umi pressed his shoulders back and leaned in, her lips brushing against his neck as she spoke, and her breath down the collar of his shirt making him shiver.

Clef swallowed, breathless. "Maybe - a little."

"The holding you down? Or the bossing you around?"

"Both?"

"Okay." Her lips and breath tickled his ear. "What if I told you to fuck me? Right now, right here in this orchard."

There wasn't a word for the startled noise that Clef made, the pulse of his magic strong enough to light the clearing about them for a second."We have a bed, Umi. We have two beds!"

"They're too far away, and you already told me the house is shielded to keep people from translocating into it. Even you." Umi argued. "If you're going to spend the entirety of our magic lesson turning me on, you're going to take responsibility for it. You are going to pin me up against that tree -" she pointed a bit further in where the shadows were becoming closer to full dark "- and then you are going to _fuck me_."

He stared at her with wide eyes, unable to articulate a single word as his brain stalled out.

" _Now_."

The next few moments were a blur which ended with Umi’s back against her chosen tree, Clef pressed against her, both of them breathless from the short upheaval. Umi dragged him in for another kiss, clutching the front of his clothes with one hand, doing something else with the other. He noticed the wriggling but didn't fully comprehend until he looked down to see her stepping out of her underwear and kicking it aside.

He hadn't been sure she'd meant it until that moment. "Umi -"

"Oh, _shut up_ ," Umi hissed, before catching his lips with hers. Her hands went to the front of his clothes again, and he pushed them aside to undo it himself.

Wedging her foot up on one of the puragu vines, Umi raised herself up a few inches for a better angle. Her head fell back with a satisfied moan as he slid into her. He covered her mouth with his, swallowing the next sound she made.

Her fingernails scraped through his hair, over his back. Clef wound one hand into the vines to brace them, as he thrust into the so-slick heat of her; Umi let out a sharp gasp as she shuddered against him, pressing her face into the curve of his neck as she clung tighter. Her breath came more raggedly by the second. He pressed his mouth to her neck, more a bite than a kiss. She cried out, tightening about him, and he kept going until the cry was more of a wail.

It took all his will to stay still while Umi panted against him, folding forward, sweat on her legs making her slip down slowly; she shuddered, and pushed up higher on the tree again. Both of them shivered as she moved. “Do you-” he asked, started to ask, but was cut off when she kissed him again, less frantically but just as deep.

One of her legs wrapped around his hip, and he pulled her closer, adjusting their angle, moving deeper, trying to make her body sing again with both of their magics until - until he broke, shattering into a thousand bright sparks. Some still glimmering behind his eyelids as he blinked them open.

Spent, he sank breathlessly to the ground, Umi coming along with him.

"I wasn't sure you'd actually do it," she laughed. 

"I shouldn't have." Clef dropped his forehead against hers and huffed out a soft laugh of his own.

"Because we're now going to be late for dinner?" Umi nudged him with a finger.

Her body was still trembling, but he could hear the tension in her voice. She still wasn’t satisfied, and that just wouldn't do. He was going to have to correct that immediately.

"We're going to be missing dinner," he said, standing and helping Umi up to her feet. He paused to close up his clothing, and Umi went in search of her underwear.

"It's all muddy," she declared a few moments later, holding something up. "Wet and muddy." She thrust it out at Clef. "Here. I don't have pockets, and I'm certainly not wearing it."

"What, so I can have mud inside my pockets?" he said, pushing the little sodden thing back to her.

"I'm not just going to carry my underwear all the way back to the house for everyone to see," Umi argued, and _threw_ the garment at him. Clef dodged, succeeding more because knickers didn’t exactly fly straight than because he had any kind of coordination back yet. Both of them turned to stare into the gloom. 

“...Well, at least you have other underwear at the house,” Clef murmured. “I don’t think you’re finding those anytime soon.”

“Not if you’re not going to help! You could summon a light or something?” Umi said, what he could see of her expression looking unenthused at the prospect of hunting through the dark trees for her clothing.

Clef grabbed hold of her wrist instead and threw magic around the both of them, slapping them both down on the ground just outside the main door of the house.

Umi stumbled when they landed. "A little _warning_ next time!"

"Fine," Clef agreed absently, leading Umi up the steps and inside. The door thumped shut behind them, and they didn’t stop until they reached Clef's room. 

Umi’s dress was off by the time they hit the bed, and Clef’s robes were abandoned on the floor with his muddy trousers before he slid down the mattress, pressing kisses against the hollows of Umi’s hips.

.*.*.*.

It might have been the earthquake that woke Umi, but Clef's startled yelp as he flung himself out of bed was a pretty close second. Especially combined with the bright flash of light of him summoning his staff.

Umi clambered over the bed and found him kneeling on the floor in his nightshirt, eyes closed, staff held before him, the mismatch somehow frightening. The stone was glowing bright enough to light the whole of the room, enough power in the air to raise goosebumps on her arms. 

She crawled off the bed and dropped down beside him. "Clef? What is it?"

He reached out and grabbed her hand, clapping it onto the staff under his. The sharp rush of his magic washed up her arm and over her body as the bedroom disappeared around them.

They didn’t reappear anywhere else. Umi had anticipated a dark hillside, or a field. They would have been a sight; in nightclothes and bare feet, outside in the middle of the night. Instead, it was like they were floating, looking at Cephiro from above. Only not Cephiro as she knew her, rocks and dirt and trees. The land below was awash in a brilliant glow, the actual power which made Cephiro exist suddenly visible to her, with all its eddying currents and the framework of willpower which held it steady - a frame which blazed with the same feel as Clef, beside her, but not him alone, locked in place by points she could _feel_ spaced along the border.

New forces awoke around her periphery. Warm and solid, she recognised Getz and Holbio, other soft and bright sparks near both of them, all woven into that framework just as Clef was. And behind them somewhere was the steady constant that must be Aveo, anchoring the whole thing so the rest of them could throw their attention out to where the glittering land was fractured and blinking out in bits and pieces. 

That must be Honda. The steady framework ended, a thin extension of lines thrown out over the peninsula not enough to keep it from jolting, hard enough Umi felt the ground trembling below her knees so hard she was almost pulled from the spell, or whatever this was.

There was a steady push of power coming from the circle of presences around them, trying to spread out beyond the points where it was pegged down at the edge of Mazda to hold Honda onto it, but it didn't seem to be doing any good.

Then she saw them.

Out on the side - the coast halfway along Honda’s far edge - there were two tiny, but bright, pricks of light.

"Clef?"

His voice sounded far away when he answered. "I know. I'm trying to get them." The light beneath the two pinpoints flickered suddenly. "Can you throw some power at the ground beneath them, hold them steady while I try to latch on?"

Umi reached out. Her power slid over the land and into it. The water was laughing as it splashed against the coastline, meeting the water which seeped through the ground in an enthusiastic rush. Rio's magic was there too, trying to hold on. There was someone else with him. Someone Umi had never met, but who was trying hard to hold on, despite the land crumbling like dough rolled too thin, too dry, to stretch so far.

"Clef!" Umi cried, as the ground she was trying to support rippled and began to tear.

His response was drowned out by the roar of magic in Umi’s ears. She reached out with all of her might and grabbed hold of as much water as she could, and yanked on it with everything she had.

Magic took hold and she couldn’t breathe. The ocean was a weight on her chest, dragging her down until she went under with it.

.*.*.*.

**To be continued... in Chapter 10**

_In which Clef faces the Council_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts welcome and appreciated!


	10. In which Clef faces the Council… alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can hardly believe it's already April. Where has this year gone? But as it is April, it is time to definitely post an update to this fic. Depending on if Down has time to beta read the next chapter this month, there may well be a second update before May.

The force of Umi’s spell ricocheted through the both of them. Clef just had time to check Rio and Pao were safe before he thumped backward onto the bedroom floor, arms wrapping about Umi as she slammed into him. His staff clattered down beside him as he tried to get his bearings back. “What were you _thinking_?” he demanded, pushing the hair from Umi’s face with shaking hands. That amount of magic could seriously injure someone if it backfired, or worse.

There were none of the usual quips from Umi about knowing her limits, no defence for acting so rashly. She didn’t respond at all.

Instead, she lay across him, _lifeless_.

He practically ripped open the buttons at the top of her nightgown to get at her neck, but his hand was trembling too much to actually feel her pulse. Her skin was cold without even the hint of magic current beneath it.

He screamed for help, for Getz or anyone who could hear him, with his voice and his magic - the house shuddered about him and that could have been Honda, could have been him. He didn’t know, and he didn’t _care_.

Aveo was the first into the room, bursting through the door not a minute after the spell had burst apart. "What in the Pillar's name was that?"

Shoving past her, Getz skidded to his knees beside Clef, reaching for Umi. "Was that a backlash?"

"I _don't know_." Clef's voice broke. "I wasn’t watching her close enough. I just let her straight into the Circle and she -"

It had been _so much_ power, Clef wasn't sure if he had felt Umi losing control of the spell and letting it go, or if it actually had exploded back on her in that final burst of energy. Either way, she shouldn’t have been handling so much magic after the day before and now -

But Getz didn't ask any more questions. "She's alive, and she’s going to stay that way. But you're going to have to let go of her for me to do anything else." He lay a hand on Clef’s arm. "You’re overwhelming every diagnostic spell I cast. I can't feel anything from her with your magic in the way, mate."

Clef sucked in a breath and tried to pull his magic back in, but it kept washing out into the empty space under Umi's skin, as if trying to coax some response out of her.

"Yeah, that ain't going to work," Getz told him. "Help me get her up on the bed, then you need to actually let go of her. Aveo -"

“Here,” Aveo murmured, and she was beside them to help lift Umi to the bed, then pulled Clef away, he hand steady on his shoulder.

Clef only let himself be chased back as far as the edge of the bed, where he sat warily watching Getz check Umi again. Warmth gathered in the air around Getz as he worked, and more colour eased into Umi's face after a few minutes, but Getz just shook his head when he finally stopped. "I’ve soothed what I can. I can’t find evidence of the damage from a backlash, but there’s absolutely no magic left in her at all. Might just be she threw everything she had at Honda and the shock of it’s stopping her pull anything new, or..."

The words echoed through Clef, freezing him, so it was Aveo who took a deep breath to ask, “You think she’s burnt-out her connection to Cephiro?”

“Possibly. But there’s no way to check when she’s unconscious. I’ve lain a healing sleep on her for now. We’ll see in a few hours. There wasn’t that much damage. I think she may have just used every scrap of power she could pull.”

Clef’s voice was scratchy when he made himself ask, “You think, or you _hope_?”

Getz didn’t answer.

.*.*.*.

Clef refused to leave Umi’s side for the rest of the night and into the morning, no matter how many times Getz grouched at him to go get some rest or he’d be no good to anyone. There was nothing he could do, but Clef didn’t care. He kept shifting from the side of the bed to a chair, standing and pacing the room, and then back again, all the while never going far enough he couldn’t watch the shallow rise and fall of her chest to reassure himself that she was still breathing. Beyond that, she never moved.

Umi’s hands stayed cold - as did the rest of her - despite the warming spell and the extra blankets he dragged out of the cupboard, the others he sent for. No matter how much he bundled her up, the chill still seeped through her empty skin. 

The rest of the house was just as awake. Umi had effectively used the entire ocean as a hammer to slam Honda back onto Mazda, and it had worked - with a few changes to geography of both wards, which were keeping the rest of the Circle busy as Aveo organised a thorough check on their stability, bringing Clef progress updates along with a new pot of tea and a snack for Getz every hour as he kept monitoring Umi between being called out to deal with other people’s minor injuries.

What jamming Honda back on had also done was create a literal wave spreading out from where the impact had happened, which had struck the closest other wards as well as parts of Mazda, doing some damage as it hit. _His_ Circle had been awake and already working, so they’d defended most of Mazda even without Clef, but no one else had been expecting a seventeen-foot wave in the middle of the night.

When Aveo brought him the first reports from Dacia, Clef waved her off. The injuries had thankfully been both minor and few in number, but he couldn’t find the energy to care about the other damages. “Send them whatever they need. I’ll pay for the repairs.”

Aveo paused. “If Mazda pays, it will look like reparations - like we’re admitting responsibility,” she said, carefully. “If the Council had done as we asked and appointed a Warden already -”

“The Council moves too slowly, and Dacia’s only just getting on its feet. Take the money from my personal accounts, then Mazda won’t be involved; it’s not like I do anything with it. Aside from buy apparently ridiculously expensive clothes for -” his voice cracked, and he couldn’t say Umi’s name, staring at the bed she lay in.

Aveo clasped him on the shoulder again, the familiar touch easing a fraction of the panic in his throat. “And then hide them in a wardrobe and refuse to give them to her for months,” she teased, quietly. “I’ll get in contact with Dokker and arrange things.”

“Thank you.”

Late morning, Umi stirred slightly, easing from the healing sleep to a natural one, and Getz convinced Clef out to meet with the rest of the Circle and _do his job_. He promised to stay by Umi's side until she regained consciousness. 

“Go on. If you have the meeting up here, you’ll only be a few doors away. We need to get a report to the Council about this. And if you try finding any more blankets, I’m going to throw you out anyway before you smother her.”

Extra chairs had been brought in before they could all fit in the little neglected sitting room just down the corridor, even with Kalos out organising prayers for stability and Koeru out with the rest of the summoners and herders, taking news back and forth about the damage and starting the heavy lifting, making sure the creatures were all reassured into settling back down. Teana was out and about with him, looking into what repairs were needed - Holbio _would_ have been doing it, as head of the smiths, but he was both exhausted and required for the report, so he’d asked her to step in - her merchants would need to supply the materials anyway.

Aveo told him all of this as she arranged everything and ushered him into the room, where everyone else was settling in and helping themselves to snacks and tea. Clef just paused in the doorway, blinking in the sunlight that streamed in through the windows, feeling as though he was hearing all their chatter from behind a muffling blanket.

Brisa leapt out of her chair - probably at some signal from Aveo which Clef couldn’t see, as she shot a worried glance in her direction before reaching to take Clef by the arm and steer him into the chair beside hers, right by the door. She got him a mug of tea and he drank, mechanically while Aveo checked on everyone else and called the meeting to order.

They would all have felt Umi in the spell, and that spectacular crash out of it, but no one asked him anything - or expected him to take charge of the meeting, so Aveo must have told them all _something_. Clef was quietly, sharply grateful he didn’t have to answer anything, but straightforward questions about Honda’s disintegration and that Brisa nudged him gently each time he was asked something; he wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

All his mind, all his _heart_ , was with the girl asleep down the hall, and all his will was praying for her recovery.

.*.*.*.

When Umi opened her eyes, there was daylight streaming in the window. She blinked up at the ceiling trying to remember anything after tumbling out of bed and grabbing hold of Clef's spell. Or had that been her own spell? Rio and someone else were going to fall, and she tried to stop it?

Her entire body ached, every muscle screaming out when she tried to sit up like she'd been stepped on by Selece. Her chest was the worst. There was a throbbing under her breastbone and her lungs burned with each breath.

"You're awake," hissed out a relieved voice. Getz bolted up from a chair by the door and over to the bedside. He grabbed her hand and pressed it firmly between both of his, a warm pulse of magic coursing off his palms and making her itch all through. "Oh thank heavens. We were afraid you might've burnt yourself out with that trick."

Umi blinked in confusion as he let go to grab a glass of water and instruct her to drink some of it, but she was desperately thirsty. She had to use both hands to steady the glass. The water was cool on her tongue, but her throat burned as she swallowed it. 

“That’s what I thought,” Getz said, taking the glass and setting it aside. He pressed his fingers just under her jaw and traced the muscles down the sides of her neck as another warm spell into her skin that rolled through her throat. “That should help a little, but I can’t do much for the strain you’ve caused. You’re going to be sore for a while.” 

Swallowing didn’t hurt as badly when she took the glass back, and she finished it without argument. “Another?” she croaked out, voice rasping.

“Here, try this first.” He took the glass and handed Umi a little crisp bread like thing next. “You ought to at least eat a little before I let Clef know you’re awake, and he starts getting in the way again.”

The first bite was sickeningly sweet and made Umi wrinkle her face at him. She swallowed that mouthful and tried to hand the thing back. “Too sweet.”

“You need to replenish your energy after that, physical as well as magical,” Getz said, refusing to take it back. “Clef said you don’t like sweets, but that’s one of the best things for refueling your body.”

“Maybe, but I’m not going to eat it.” Umi shoved it back. 

“Just a few bites?”

“ _No_ ,” she said, and dropped it on the bedside table, where it shattered. 

“Fine. “Getz refilled the glass from the jug and passed it back to her. “I’ll find you something else.”

Umi wondered what he’d meant about burning herself out, but he bounced back to his feet and over to the open door to shout for Clef before she had a chance to ask.

Moments later, Clef appeared in the doorway. His face was even paler than usual - which was a feat given he always looked like he hadn't seen the sun in several centuries - and creased with worry. 

"Umi," he breathed, crossing the room and nearly throwing himself across the bed. He held her hand in one of his, pressing his other against the centre of her chest, just where the worst of the ache was, but whatever he sensed made him relax a little. "You foolish creature," he said. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking 'That ground's going to collapse and they might die', so I just -"

"Grabbed hold of the _entire ocean_ and slammed it against the coast!" Clef glared at her, but there was no heat in it.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Umi shrugged, then winced when her chest twinged. “Did it work?”

He frowned. “Honda is in roughly the same place, if not the same shape. Rio and Pao are fine. But you could have killed yourself!" Clef said, voice breaking and his eyes glittering damply. "What would I have done if something happened to you? I can't even contact your family."

Umi looked at Clef in horror. It had been years since she'd wondered what would happen in they died in Cephiro; her parents searching for her if she didn't come home. They would probably contact all of her school friends, then reach out to Hikaru or Fuu, who would then have to not only be told the news, but take it home to Mama and Papa. Scrubbing a hand across her now burning eyes, Umi shook her head. "I'm fine. I'll see them tomorrow, and they’ll never know."

Clef pulled her into a tight hug. "Please don't scare me like that again."

"I’ll try not to?" Umi leaned into his warmth.

With a broken laugh, Clef pressed a soft kiss to her temple and pulled back to look at her. "You just like to complicate my life, don't you?"

"You never seem to complain too much when I'm doing it." 

“Well, I’m complaining now. No more complicating like _that_ , please!”

Umi moved back toward him, tilting her head to catch his lips with hers. Clef tenderly kissed her back, one hand cradling her face. His magic jolted through her like the sharp prick of blood returning to a limb, not like the normal reaction, more like it was reaching out for hers. She hissed in a sharp breath, but still crept closer. 

“Okay,” Getz said, startling them both apart. “I’m going to go and leave you two alone for a few minutes, but I’m telling you to take it easy, Umi. No magic and no vigorous sex for at least a few days.” He paused in the doorway. “Should I tell them you’ll be a little while?”

Clef glanced at Umi as if looking for her opinion on this, but as she had no idea who Getz was talking about, she just shrugged - and winced again - even as she blushed at the mention of sex. “What’s happening?”

“Oh - of course, you’ve been unconscious,” Clef pulled rueful expression at her. “We’re in the middle of a Circle meeting down the hallway. I’m probably meant to check we’re responding all the ways we should, and writing up a report for the Council to yell about until they finally give in and appoint a Warden for Honda.”

Umi blinked at him. “You’re all arguing over who has to do the paperwork?" she guessed, and both Getz and Clef grinned at her.

“Pao gets stuck with that - you haven’t met in person yet, but Pao’s our Clerk,” Clef told her.

Getz was snickering in the doorway. “Pao actually _likes_ paperwork. The meetings without them are interesting, though…”

“Can I help?” Umi asked, and both men paused.

“Your account would probably be useful, actually, if you feel up to it?” Clef glanced between her and Getz. “And if our healer thinks it’s okay? It’s not quite a full Circle meeting, a few people are still out and about, and you’ve met most of who’s here.”

Getz gave her a long, considering look, during which Umi tried to look _healthy_ and _awake_ and not like she was leaning on Clef to stay upright. “If you really feel up to it - just don’t push yourself. If you start wilting, we can bring you back again, Clef refused to move out of earshot, so the meeting’s only a few rooms away.”

“ _Getz_!” Clef hissed, flushing.

Nodding, Umi grinned at Clef. “I’ll come. But could you find me some clothes, maybe?”

“I’ll see both of you in a few minutes, then,” Getz said, and left them to it.

.*.*.*.

Clef had to help Umi get dressed once he'd brought her clothes. She kept having to pause to rest after holding her arms up for him to help her into an undershirt, then a dress, and a wrap over that, the slightly erratic mismatch of Cephiran clothes and the things she’d brought with her hopefully comfortable and warm; her skin was still cool to the touch, though not as clammy as it had been.

She leaned heavily against him while brushing her teeth, and didn't exactly let go while they walked down the corridor to the little sitting room, where the meeting was continuing. Getz had been parked in the chair by the door, adding his version of events to the report around bites of food from a plat Brisa was keeping well stocked when he wasn’t looking.

Clef hadn't remembered the low table being covered with so many plates of high-energy foods when he'd left the room, but he hadn't exactly been paying attention.

One of the settees had been cleared for them. Clef eased Umi onto it before sitting down beside her. Aveo had the chair on Umi’s other side and passed her a cup of tea before Clef was even settled. 

"You should eat something when you’re finished with that, dear,” Aveo said to Umi, and then was passing a full plate across to Clef. “You should have something, too.”

He knew better than to argue and kept the plate where Umi could steal from it without reaching too far.

"That was a very impressive display." There was a flicker of a smile at the edge of Rio's lips where he sat across from them. "But I would expect nothing less of one who carries such a strong connection to our Guru."

Getz muttered something like "An impressive display of idiocy," then Brisa thumped him on the shoulder.

"I overreacted didn't I?" Umi said, her voice quiet and tinged with embarrassment.

"You saved both Pao and myself from falling through into the water." Rio said, his voice full of gentle reassurance. "Our little clerk cannot swim, and even a water-spirit may drown if enough earth is dropped on top of them." He gestured at Pao as he said their name, and Pao peeked out from behind a stack of papers to give Umi a tiny wave and a nod in agreement. "Just worry about regaining your strength. You'll need it for far more important things soon."

Aveo called them back to task once Umi had eaten a reasonable amount, asking Umi for her account of what had happened. (Which started with them in bed together, but not one person commented.) Umi started talking about the land feeling like badly made dough, but Clef wasn't paying attention to her words. He was watching her movements, listening to the growing strength of her voice, and keeping her close enough he could feel the subtle pulse of magic beneath her skin telling him that she was going to be alright.

Once Umi had finished telling her side of what happened she tucked her feet up underneath herself on the settee and leaned into his shoulder, drooping more and more heavily against him, as the discussion about what they ought to do continued on. 

A little while later, Aveo prodded Clef - who was starting to drift off himself - and suggested that he take Umi back to bed. Clef looked over. Umi's face was completely hidden by the curtain of her fringe, but her breathing was slow and easy, and her magic lay quiet.

.*.*.*.

Umi woke again to fading sunlight. Clef murmured sleepily against her neck, his arm wrapping more tightly about her waist when she tried to move, so she let herself lean back into his warmth. She might as well enjoy this while she had it; she would be going back to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon, and she wouldn’t be back to Cephiro for a few weeks. Even then, chances to do this were going to be rare.

"It's probably dinner time," Clef said after a few more minutes, his voice low and rough with sleep. "We should both eat something."

"Can it wait?" Umi asked, snuggling in closer.

Clef kissed her neck, his warm breath making her shiver. "Only until someone comes up to get us. Aveo isn't going to let either of us miss dinner twice in a row, especially not after last night."

Clef seemed just as reluctant to let Umi go as she was to move away from him, but they did manage to crawl back out of bed and head downstairs before anyone came to fetch them.

Dinner was relatively quiet. The rest of the Circle had returned to their own homes, including Brisa, who had apparently vanished with Kalos the moment she appeared, promising Kalos’s report on paper ‘ _later_ , after she’s _slept_ ’ and whisking her away. So it was only the six of them at the table. Everyone was relatively subdued - most of them yawning between mouthfuls - and the conversation mostly consisted of asking each other to pass dishes and drinks.

It was Aygo who finally broke the calm. "Did you really move the whole ocean?" he asked, looking up at Umi with wide eyes.

Umi nodded. "Yeah. I think I did."

"That's so cool!" He turned to Clef, waving his bread at him. "Why don't _you_ do anything like that? Aren't you supposed to be more powerful than anyone?"

"Because it's a stupid thing to do," Clef said.

"Someone had to do something!" Umi snapped back at him.

"I was _trying_ to." He made a wild gesture with his hand, nearly splattering some of his dinner across himself. "If you'd just waited another moment, I would have had them."

"But you weren't fast enough! You heard Rio. They were going to _fall_."

"That doesn't mean you should do things like that, Umi!" Clef snapped.

Umi picked up her plate and moved over to sit by Aygo. "Clef's being a twit again. Will you be my friend instead?"

"Sure!" Aygo answered, then looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm not going to kiss you, though."

Aveo coughed at that, while Getz snorted out a laugh, and Elysion giggled.

"Fair enough." Umi turned and stuck her tongue out at Clef - who just rolled his eyes - before going to back to eating her food.

"Are you coming back here after the meeting, Clef, or will you be staying at the Castle?" Aveo asked.

Umi looked up. "What meeting?"

"Emergency Council meeting. They finally want to do something about Honda." Clef answered, not sounding particularly happy about it.

"Oh." Of course, there would be a meeting about what she'd done. It had affected more than just Mazda, hadn't it? It was just - she'd wanted to spend a little more time with Clef before going home. If he was in a meeting she wouldn't get to. Umi poked at her food, no longer feeling that hungry.

"It shouldn't last all day." Clef said, apologetically. "Perhaps we could have dinner before you leave tomorrow?"

"You're leaving tomorrow?" Getz asked, straightening from his slump at the table to look worried. “Don’t you have to transport yourself back to your home? I’m not sure that’s a good idea - can’t you rest a few more days?”

"My parents are expecting me, and I have to go back to school next week," Umi said, shaking her head.

"School's _stupid_ ," Aygo commiserated. Elysion nodded in quieter agreement.

Getz reached across the table to ruffle Aygo's hair, though he still looked worried. "You hardly even go to school."

"Even when I don’t, Master Clef still makes me read lots of those boring old books," Aygo argued, shoving Getz's hand away, "and write reports and things. I don't think all those words can possibly fit inside my head."

"But isn’t there any way for you to get a message home, and at least stay another night?" Getz asked, looking back up at Umi.

"No." Umi shook her head. As much as she would like the excuse to stretch her visit out longer, she couldn't. "My parents expect me home tomorrow night, and I won’t make them worry."

Umi was chased away from the table when she tried to help clear it, Aygo and Elysion turning into a united front before the adults could even react; she excused herself to go pack, instead, shoving everything clean back into her bag - the washing might as well stay here. Clef would get it back to her.

Dropping the bag at the foot of her bed, Umi slumped into the dressing table chair and stared at the jewellery still scattered haphazardly across the tabletop. She hadn't put any of it away. She picked up the bracelet she'd worn to the village and emptied out everything she’d put in the gem. The coin purse she tossed at her bag - she'd tuck it away somewhere in her room at the Castle before she went home - but she sat there a moment staring at the little promise box again.

Umi traced the gentle curving letters across the lid, before opening it and putting in all of the jewellery she had worn this week, every little hair clip, ear cuff, and bracelet. It was just a few days of things, but so much had happened, and she didn't want to forget any of it.

What was she supposed to do with it? She couldn't take it home - nothing from Cephiro ever made it back, no matter how many times they tried - and she certainly couldn't take it back to the Castle to keep in her room. With that sort of quote on the top, Caldina would start asking questions if she saw it - which would be almost certain given how often she dropped into the girls' room unannounced.

It was chance Umi shouldn't take.

As if sensing her quandary, Clef chose that moment to knock on the open door. Turning around in her seat, Umi held the box out to him. "If I give this back to you, will you keep it safe for me until I can move here?"

"Of course." Clef stepped forward and held out both of his hands, taking the box from her as delicately as if it were made from the finest cut crystal. He held it a long moment before vanishing it into the ring he always wore. 

Once she'd gone through the room another time to make sure she hadn't left anything - Clef went to fetch one of her books and some shoes from his bedroom - Umi let him talk her into joining him downstairs for a quiet bath, before they both curled back up in bed for one last night together.

.*.*.*.

Clef would have liked Umi's last morning with them to be a slow and relaxed affair before finally travelling back to the Castle. Unfortunately, the Council meeting was due to start well before lunch time.

They did manage to have a rushed breakfast together before Clef translocated them into the main receiving hall of the Castle, and they walked down to his office together - with a brief pause at Umi's room for her to put some things away and enough privacy for a kiss goodbye.

"I should probably leave you here," Umi said when they stopped at Clef's office door.

Clef's hand lingered on hers. "Are you sure you won’t stay for dinner?"

Umi shook her head and laughed as she reached out to take her bag back from him again. "I still have my summer homework to finish, and only two more days to do it."

" _Umi_."

"It's only a few things! I got most of it done before coming." With a brief glance down the empty corridor, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "I hope everything goes well, and they get the whole Warden business settled."

"Hopefully." He paused, hand on the door. Umi still looked pale and was swaying slightly on her feet. "Are you sure you're safe to get back?"

"It doesn’t take that much energy to get there, and I can pay for transport home. No extra walking involved. I should have enough money on me." She slung the bag around and dug through the side pocket to pull out her purse and did a quick count of the notes inside. Paper money did seem more sensible for a world that didn't have a way to make coins lighter with magic. "Yeah. It'll be fine. Next weekend I have plans with Satomi, so I won't see you for… two weeks, I guess?"

"Will that be just the afternoon or were you staying the night."

"Just Sunday afternoon." Umi said, her cheeks flushing. "I can come and… say hi?"

Clef smiled. "I'd like that."

"Good. So, you get to work, and I'll go home." She took a slow step backward. "I'll see you in a fortnight."

He watched until she disappeared into the archway of the spiral, then finally pushed open his office door to find Ferio waiting for him. Ferio unfolded himself from the chair and shook a sheaf of papers at him - presumably a copy of the report they'd sent over yesterday. 

"Do you want to tell me exactly what happened this week?"

"I had a guest," Clef said, making his way around his desk to the kettle. 

"Oh, I can see that. Trust me, _everyone_ now knows that." Ferio rattled the papers again. "What I want to know is how you expect me to mitigate the damage you’re doing to your reputation?"

"What does it matter what _everyone_ knows? Everyone _should_ know it wasn’t illegal, and that those laws are terrible anyway!"

"That doesn't mean you should be taking people to your house for a - a week of debauchery!"

Clef snorted a laugh at that. While it was true he'd spent more of the week tangled up in bed with Umi than he would ever have imagined, Clef wouldn't have called it ‘debauched’. He opened the tin for the strongest tea he had and held it up. "Drink?"

"Yes - _No_ \- Are you even listening to me?"

Two large spoonfuls of tea went into the teapot before Clef snapped the lid back on the tin. "I’m allowed to have friends, Ferio."

"And how many of your friends do you plan to have sex with?"

"It’s not like it’s never happened before, as Sandero reminds me every time I try to give him a job he wants to worm out of by claiming it would look like _favouritism_." Once the water was in the pot, Clef dropped the lid down with loud clank. "Are you feeling slighted or something? Because I thought you went for people with breasts, but if you really-"

" _No_!" Ferio raised his hands defensively. "I am not - Can you please just keep all of _this_ , with Umi, a little more… I don't know… subtle?"

"Well, it's not like I expected an entire ward to try falling into the sea." Clef poured two cups and handed one to Ferio - who automatically took it - on his way round the desk. "As you said, it's not like my feelings have ever been that much of a secret."

"You didn't have to go parading her around dressed like-" Ferio waved a hand up and down in the air, a faint blush on his cheeks "-your _companion_ for the evening."

“I didn’t choose her outfit!” he snapped.

Ferio remained unimpressed. “Maybe not, but you _bought_ it, didn’t you.”

Clef pinched the bridge of his nose and took a slow deep breath. There was no point in getting annoyed with Ferio suggesting it looked like he'd paid Umi to be with him that night when there were undoubtedly other Councillors thinking exactly the same thing, and he had probably as long as it took him to finish this cup of tea before he had to face them.

"I'm not saying you should cut off all contact. Even if I didn’t think Umi would murder me for the suggestion, it would be strange for you two to suddenly never been seen together again, but… couldn’t you be less _blatant_ about it?" Ferio set his cup down, his expression severe. "These people can make your life difficult, Clef, especially when you have two more laws to go. Neither Verna nor Torneo seem interested in pushing them through, so it’s literally for your sake they’re being debated."

"Do you think I don't know that?” Clef looked somewhat bleakly at his cup. “I’ve been living with these laws longer than you’ve been here. Is it so wrong to finally want a life outside my job?”

Ferio sighed, "I honestly don't care if you keep sleeping with her, but I don't want to know about it. If I don't know, hopefully, no one else will either." He pushed his chair further away from the desk and stood up. "I'll see you in fifteen minutes."

Downing what was left in his cup, Clef reached over and finished Ferio's while he read through the latest damage reports, trying to steel himself against the arguments to come, and the papers were the only forewarning he was likely to get. 

He took his time getting to the Council chamber. He wasn’t precisely late, but he was cutting it closer than usual by the time he opened the door

When he walked in, virtually every head in the room turned to stare his way. Clef faltered mid-step; okay, that was a little more attention than he was expecting. The business with Honda was unfortunately timed, but it wasn’t like Umi had made it fall off by getting him into bed. In fact, she’d helped it stay stable a day longer than it probably would have otherwise… He just wasn’t sure, looking around, that most of the people in this room were going to believe that. 

Ferio was busily ignoring his entrance, talking to LaFarga as though nothing had happened, but Miura, the Master Healer, rolled her eyes at him and more than one person was shaking their head. 

More than that, both Soru Torneo and Gorham, the head of the southern mountain spirits, looked like they wanted to kick him right back out of the room. They were both glaring with the same expression of disgust; as they generally agreed with each other on precisely nothing, the united front was particularly disturbing. 

Verna - who got the joy of chairing these things due to her role as Teru, the head of the Judges Guild - opened the meeting right on time, as Clef took a seat next to Ferio, and threw it straight over to Clef to explain what had happened for all the people who hadn’t bothered reading his Circle’s report this morning. (Or, more charitably, for those who had been travelling to get to the meeting and hadn’t had time.) 

That went well enough - no one was disputing the fact that Honda had attempted to separate from the mainland - until the very first question he got was ‘is the Knight of Water still recovering in Mazda, or is she prepared to give her statement today?’. 

Blinking, Clef stared back at Verna. “She - no, Umi returned home this morning.” 

Verna’s stare turned sharp. “You didn’t think we might need to talk to her?” 

“No?” Clef blinked, while Ferio sighed heavily next to him. “I thought you might want to speak to my Circle, but…” 

Possibly, he should have thought that through before Umi left earlier than planned. He’d been more focused on not letting himself beg her to stay. 

Across the room, Murano the Warden of Arnage, sighed theatrically. “The Guru seems to have somewhat compromised judgement when it comes to the Knight of Water.”

“I agree,” Gorham said, folding his arms. “You allowed an untrained mage into the workings of your Circle without, so far as I can see, gaining their consent-” 

“It wouldn’t have worked without their consent!” Clef snapped back. He made himself take a deep breath. “Ryuuzaki Umi is a powerful mage - or she wouldn’t be the Knight of Water. She might not have so much formal training as others-” 

“You mean you haven’t taken her on as an apprentice because you were planning on getting that law repealed as soon as you could,” Gorham said, flatly. “Which is why you forced us to stay so long last session, so you could take her to bed on this visit of hers.” 

Clef clenched his hand into a fist under the table. “Any apprenticeship of someone not resident in Cephiro ends badly, Gorham, as the Guild records show plainly enough. Umi’s certainly never asked for an apprenticeship with _anyone_. In fact, I believe she plans on entering the Academy when she has finished her schooling in her homeland.” He ignored Ferio sitting up straighter and staring at him when he mentioned Umi moving - of course Ferio, unlike most of the people in the room, knew that Umi’s school career would be ending in less than a year. 

“The question remains,” Murano drawled, “would things even have come to this if you hadn’t been distracted all week?” 

“Honda attempting to fall off has _nothing_ to do with Umi!” Clef snapped, losing any grip he had left on his temper. “As you will see from my reports from the last _six months_ the whole province has been unstable from the start! That would be why I ‘kept rattling on about it’, as I believe Sylphy phrased it in the meeting before last. Without even an interim to support it, this was always going to happen! In fact, it nearly happened a day earlier; as you can see from the report I had _already submitted_ about having to tie the cursed thing back on again!” 

Torneo gave him a wholly unimpressed look. “And was the Knight of Water involved in the incident earlier this week?” 

Clef hesitated - he couldn’t say no, it was detailed in the report. But he could see the trap even as he fell into it, and his silence was all the assent Gorham needed to take off from Torneo’s lead.

“Perhaps, then, letting an unqualified mage without even Iru status and no formal training play at assisting with a highly important bit of magic intended to, literally, _hold our land together_ , was another example of your poor judgement on this topic!”

“All she did was hold the groundwater back so the rest of us could work. She had no part in the actual stabilisation,” Clef ground out. “As you would know if you actually read my-”

“And why was she even there in the first place?” Navara snapped. Her voice startled Clef; Toyota’s Seneschal, Latil, had been representing them the past two sessions due to Navara being _very_ pregnant and on medical leave. She now looked very pregnant and livid. “One-off encounters are now allowed under the law, but sharing company with someone for an extended period is _not_ so easily dismissed.”

“I do find it hard to believe,” Murano added, with a false air of thoughtfulness, “that the Guru should find it so hard to keep one extra ward together - not even fully formed! And as soon as he gets distracted, ‘poof’, there it goes, so unstable that it tries to fall even after it’s been formally stabilised by your Circle. Or is it that you chose your Circle out of people you like, not people actually up to _doing the job_?” 

Presea actually grabbed onto Clef’s arm at that point, and Ferio kicked him under the table, but he was glad to see that they, too, were glaring at Murano. It was, at least, too far for some of the other Wardens to let Murano’s claims go; Stanza spoke up while Clef was still too angry to form words. 

“Now, just wait a minute. We agreed when we started setting up the Wards that each Warden would be responsible for their land, their boundaries and no further. Yeah, some of us have helped when something starts developing beside us, but it’s never been more than a few miles of extra land before a Warden has been appointed, before now.”

Ouran nodded, looking serious for once. “Expecting our Honorable Guru to do more than the rest of us when he already has _two_ jobs seems more than a little backward to me.”

Stanza agreed. “Surely we should be giving him more support, rather than less! I understand that there has been trouble finding a permanent Warden, but as I’ve said before, the request for an interim appointment was perfectly justified. This council chose not to appoint one, therefore it’s this council’s fault this happened. He’s been warning you for months something was going to go wrong!” 

“That’s as may be,” Torneo cut in, “but the fact remains, if he had _not_ let a mage of too much power and too little control into his Circle’s connection to the land, there would have been no tidal wave and no damage to Dacia or your Datsun! For that slip of judgement, the Guru does have to answer to this council - and I find it highly convenient for him that he ‘didn’t realise’ we might want to talk to the Knight of Water before she left.” 

At that point, Clef was just about calm enough to speak again. He didn’t get the chance; Auris, who governed the spirits of the rivers, snorted derisively and leaned back in her chair. 

“Really?” she said, staring about. “It’s bad enough we got dragged out to this meeting - I had plans today which did _not_ involve listening to all you complaining - but you want to argue about what that girl did? If Honda had managed to fall, the wave that girl made would look like nothing in comparison to what would have happened. If you don’t think that water suddenly slamming upriver gave most of my people a headache, then you obviously can’t reason for shit; yeah, it was a pain, but I’m bloody glad she did it.” 

“She’s right,” Dokker agreed, and as his Ward was the one which had been worst hit, that carried a lot of weight.

“Look,” Clef managed, while half the room stared at Auris and the rest of them rolled their eyes, “I didn’t think you’d need her statement when you have my entire Circle prepared to come before the Council. I’m sorry about that, but I stand by my statement that Honda has been increasingly unstable, and this could, and would, have happened at any time. It would have been distinctly worse, however, if I had been resident here at the time and _not_ in my ward, with my Circle. You expect me to do that on a regular basis; my having some company is hardly as distracting as looking after an entire Guild! And I doubt all my fellow Wardens would appreciate being told that their families and lives are ‘too much of a distraction’ any more than I do. What was barred to me as Guru, what is _still_ barred to me, has nothing to do with my role as Warden.” 

One of the spirits snickered quietly. “Is ‘company’ what the humans are calling it these days?” was muttered, but mostly Clef’s point had rung true enough there was a room full of grumbling rather than shouting. 

Verna took that moment to take control of the room back. “If you’re all quite finished,” she bit out, “perhaps we can stop prattling on about what already happened and get on with doing something about it. Which is, I must point out, the whole point of this emergency meeting. For whatever reason - and I could personally have done without these dramatics - Honda is blatantly unstable and in need of a Warden. I move that we elect one _now_. Will someone please second me so we can all get out of here before we grow old.” 

“I will,” said Miura, waving a hand in the air. She was sat just beyond Presea, and Clef was pretty certain she’d been doing completely unrelated paperwork the whole time. “Do you have the candidate list, Avenir?” 

The head of the Clerks waved a hand at the poor woman who had been scribbling down notes to write up this meeting later, and she pulled a piece of paper from the official Council Records stone, and handed it back. “We have seven candidates who have been put forward. I note that two of these, Vezel and Yanmar, had not taken their qualifications when the list was put together. Have they since passed, or should they be removed from the list?” 

Clef winced - as head of the Mage’s Guild, that was aimed at him, and he’d not looked at a single piece of Guild business since he got to Mazda last week. Presea, however, elbowed him discreetly and handed over a piece of paper; he looked down, and tried not to grin. “Both took their trial yesterday, as it happens, and both passed. They haven’t been formally invested with their titles, but they’ve qualified; the Mage’s Guild has a long history of appointing before people have their shiny piece of paper, so I see no reason they should not be included.” 

“The qualification is enough, yes,” Verna agreed. “Right. Which Wards are next to this thing and discounted from the vote? Mazda, obviously. Who else?” 

Dokker waved his hand - Dacia wasn’t exactly touching Honda, which stuck off the edge of Mazda alone, but it was their next neighbour along the coast. Datsun, too, was close enough to be disallowed a say, so Stanza joined the two of them in leaving the room. 

Clef eyed both of them as the Council door shut, and they grinned at him - the same mischievous looks they’d had at Ouran’s party. 

“So,” Stanza said, speculatively. “You had a good week?” 

“I take it you don’t care who takes Honda now?” Clef asked, more than a little pointedly. 

Dokker shrugged. “Nothing more we can do now. But at least you and your Knight managed to hold onto things one more day - Vezel or Yanmar would be decent neighbours, I reckon.” 

Sighing, Clef dropped into one of the waiting chairs.

“Hey, don’t let Gorham get to you. He wouldn’t know a good time if it jumped up and down in his bed blowing a horn,” Stanza said. 

“Doubt he’s ever had anyone blow _his_ horn,” Dokker snickered. “Hopefully whoever gets Honda won’t be such a stick in the mud.”

The two of them continued to chatter, while Clef leaned back against the wall and just let the conversation roll on without his input. Instead of wondering how the debate was proceeding, or going over the mess the meeting had been so far, he found himself just hoping Umi had got back home safely. 

If the people inside knew, they’d probably take that as proof he should be kicked out of his post, or at least yelled at about it for several hours. But even with the fuss it had already caused, he didn’t care.

.*.*.*.

Umi reappeared in Tokyo and wished instantly she _had_ stayed in Cephiro until dinner, preferably sleeping the whole time. She felt like the whole world was tilting beneath her. Bracing a hand on the wall, she made herself breathe through the ache in her chest. The first few breaths were agony but slowly eased off as she forced herself not to panic.

The crowded elevator down didn’t help her sense of balance one bit. She made it as far as the cafe before she decided a sit-down and a cup of tea might make things better. 

She’d finished her first cup when she considered getting food to help with the drain. Maybe eating would still help on this side of the divide, since the dizziness was probably still related to the magic use.

It _did_. She still felt foul, but less frail. Once she made it outside, Umi splashed out on a taxi, like she’d told Clef she would, so she wouldn't have to worry about standing on the train. It wasn't like she had used her spending money for very much that summer since she'd only spent three out of the six weeks of her holiday in Japan anyway.

The ride was long enough she nearly fell asleep, but the taxi driver woke her from her drowse asking where she wanted to be dropped off.

She was greeted at the door by a screaming ball of orange fluff - her mother's cat, Peach. It was still too early for anyone to be home; both her parents were still at work, and neither the cleaner, nor her mother's assistant, Kumiko, were around either. The cat wound around Umi's feet as she tried to walk through the door, nearly knocking her over twice before she managed to kick her shoes off.

"Don't you dare try to tell me you haven't eaten," she complained. "You and I both know that's not true. If Mama or Papa didn't do it, I know Aunty Kumiko did.”

Peach trotted after her down the hallway and upstairs - making loud burring noises as he ran. Umi opened her bedroom door and he shot past her and onto the bed before she'd even set her bag down. "Did you just miss me, you stupid cat?" she said affectionately as she dropped down onto the bed beside him and ruffled the fur on the top of his head. "I had a really good week. How about you?"

The only response Umi got was a contented purr as the cat curled up against her side. Tugging the pillow down under her head, Umi bowed to the inevitable, for once, and let her eyes drift shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, Umi's two lives begin to collide, and her mother starts asking questions about her new boyfriend. 
> 
> All feedback is loved. Any questions, comments, or happy thoughts are welcome.
> 
> If you like it, you can also [reblog it](http://milieva.tumblr.com/post/172705850212/mkr-fanfic-sanctuary-chp-10).


	11. In which Mama asks questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, faithful readers! I hope you are enjoying this fine April morning. I'm currently sat at home listening to DIY happening in the house connected to mine (Not pleasant at 8 in the morning on a Saturday) surrounded by startled cats.
> 
> Many thanks to Down for doing a final fluff and polish of this chapter last night, and for putting up with my whinging while I fail to get much done with a broken foot.
> 
> For Umi's parents, I am using their names/titles from the Japanese version, which are literally Mama (ママ) and Papa (パパ). I have no plans to invent given names for them. They will be Mrs & Mr Ryuuzaki or Mama and Papa when I name them.

Clef spent most of that first week after Umi left worrying about whether she actually made it home safely. He had no way of knowing one way or the other, though she had seemed well enough by the time she left, and she was stubborn enough to make it back safely, surely… 

He should have insisted she stay, but he understood her desire not to let her parents worry. Sleep had been a battle ever since. He didn’t know how he would live with himself if anything had happened to her. 

By the time the Council met for their next regular meeting, Clef was a prickly ball of anxiety. He got into an argument with Murano over minor details of the planned development of the land, of all things. He didn’t care what shape the new peninsula off the other side of Eunos took! It made absolutely no difference to him one way or the other. And yet, here he was, getting into an hour-long debate about it. Once he’d started, Clef couldn’t make himself stop. Murano was just so convinced he had the only answer and that everyone else would agree.

Someone over the other side muttered ‘If this is how stroppy the Guru gets when he has sex, maybe we should reinstate the law’ just loud enough to be audible. Clef flushed, horribly aware of doing so, forcing himself not to look even when someone else said ‘Nah, I think _stopping’s_ the problem - better to just repeal the next two.’

Oh, how he wished they would - wished when people asked how he was, he could tell them ‘I’m worried about my partner. I have no way of checking she’s okay, and I _miss_ her’.

But that would be admitting treason.

He did, at least, stop arguing just for the sake of arguing.

When the other girls arrived a few days later for a visit, Clef had to restrain himself from grabbing them and demanding to know how Umi was, though he knew, logically, if anything was wrong he would have known from the moment they appeared - they wouldn’t have been smiling. But he didn’t have to wait too long anyway, as Hikaru bounced across the reception hall to tell him Umi said hello and she was with her friends from school. 

When neither Hikaru nor Fuu were concerned at all, Clef finally relaxed, and exhaustion hit him like a weight dropped from the skies. He made it through another two hours, then gave up, packed up early, and headed _home_. 

He got back to Mazda halfway through dinner, and there were several raised eyebrows as he walked in. 

“You’re early,” Aveo said. “Did you stop bouncing off the walls yet, or did they kick you out of the castle?” 

“Hikaru and Fuu visited today; Umi is fine,” he said, and Getz let out a relieved sigh and flopped back in his chair at the dining table. Clef glared at him. "You - didn’t you just spend all week telling me Umi was fine?"

"Yeah, well, I only had one of you I could actually try to do anything for. I don’t think Umi would mind a little bit of lying when I’m doing it to keep you from actually crumbling with anxiety."

"You’re not meant to lie to your patients!" Clef snapped.

Getz just shrugged. "I do it all the time. ‘This won’t hurt a bit’ and ‘I know what I’m doing’." 

Aveo thumped him on the shoulder for the second one. “You’re a terrible healer. Why did we let you in the Circle, again?”

"Hey, you voted me in. Anyway, I may have been exaggerating the truth a bit, but I was _pretty_ sure she’d be okay."

Clef made a squawking noise, flailing a hand wordlessly in appeal. Aveo just poured him another cup of tea and patted him on the shoulder.

“Well, if you go to sleep now, maybe you’ll be able to catch up enough tomorrow that you can go interview new healers for us,” she said, and Getz snorted. 

“I’ll hand over the practice, but no one’s getting their hands on my garden.” 

“It’s my garden!” Clef retorted, but the bickering was… restful. It meant people were relaxed enough to poke fun at each other, and he went to bed early and slept the whole night through.

.*.*.*.

A little over two weeks since she’d left, Clef was on his way back to his office when Umi practically ran into him in the corridor, very flushed and out of breath. She must have come to Cephiro directly from school; she was alone, still wearing her uniform. It hadn’t changed much in the last three years, though the skirt seemed a little shorter than he remembered.

"Hi," Umi said, stopping in front of him and grinning. "So, I've got maybe an hour before I absolutely have to head home, and I was wondering if you might be free?"

Clef’s heartrate kicked up a fraction. He couldn't think very well with Umi looking at him so _expectantly_ , but he couldn’t remember anything important enough to demand his attention. "If you want, we can go to my rooms?"

"Yes, please." Umi bounced after him, swinging her bag enthusiastically.

"I didn't expect you until tomorrow."

"I missed you. I didn't want to wait that long, and everyone else will be around tomorrow as well."

They were walking fast; it was less than a minute before they reached his door. Umi paused just inside and crouched down to remove her boots, and Clef watched her, bemused

"What?" she asked, standing up again. "You shouldn't wear your shoes inside. You'll track in all sorts of dirt." She looked very pointedly at him until Clef slipped off his own boots with a laugh.

"So, do I get a tour?" Umi asked.

Clef looked around. There really wasn't much to show. They were in the main living area that made up the majority of his rooms here. It stretched from the main door to the windows on the other side, with a little kitchenette and table nearer the door and a sitting area at the far end. He'd added most of the kitchenette himself, as most of the rooms on this floor were guest rooms, not for people who actually resided in the castle. He'd chosen it for that reason; it meant he had a quiet place to retreat to.

Pointing to the doors down the left of the room in order from closest to furthest, he said, "Toilet, bath, storeroom." The two doors to the right. "Study and bedroom."

Umi wandered over to the sitting area in as he stopped to put the kettle on. She dropped her school bag in the nearest chair and practically flopped onto the settee.

"Tea?" He asked, opening the cupboard and pulling out a tin.

"Yes, please." She tilted her head at him. "Do you have anything for a headache?"

"Are you feeling okay?" Clef turned back to her. She looked far better than she had the last time he'd seen her, colour back in her cheeks and an apparent abundance of energy.

"The transport spell always makes me a little lightheaded when I'm on my own. Today it decided to add a stabbing headache. I thought it would stop when the dizziness did - usually it only takes a few minutes - but it's still niggling away. Tell me you have something to make it stop?"

"Of course." He opened the cupboard again and switched tins. This one was similar to the tea he'd given Umi for that hangover after Ouran's ball and had a pleasant enough flavour that he didn’t mind sharing it. He picked up the little earthenware teapot from the drying rack and added a few spoonfuls of tea leaves and boiling water, leaving it to steep while he pulled down another cup and turned back to Umi. 

"How are your lessons going?"

Umi groaned. "Everyone's stressing about the end of term exams, and university entrance exams, and everything to do with exams. I'm sick of hearing about them and studying already, and the term’s barely even started. At least our class has started discussing what we're going to do for the school festival, which is a lot more fun than revision."

Bringing over two cups and the pot on a tray, Clef set them down on the low table and sat himself beside Umi. The school festival had been one of the reasons Clef hadn’t seen her for months last year; she’d been so busy with preparations. Her entire class had been involved, she'd told him. "What are you doing this year?"

"A play!" 

Clef poured tea into both cups before picking one up. "About what?"

"No idea." Umi shrugged. "But my friend Rika and I want a dramatic sword-fight." 

"Of course you do." Umi had been wheedling Ferio or Lantis or really anyone who was willing into sparring with her as often as possible this last year, intent on working on her skill in Cephiro’s ways of fighting as well as keeping up with her training back in Tokyo.

Umi picked up her cup and stared at it thoughtfully. "I'd invite you, but I'm not sure you want the festival to be your first experience of Tokyo. If we could even get you to Tokyo, you know, without you turning into a seven-hundred-year-old corpse."

"You can bring pictures back," he offered. She'd brought him pictures of some of the places she'd visited.

"Oh! I could get Papa to film it? The camera should hold battery power long enough to watch it." She blushed and looked away. "I mean, if you want to see it? The screen is tiny on that thing,"

Clef smiled and patted her knee. "I would, if you want to show me."

Umi nodded and drank some of her tea. "So, how did the whole emergency Council meeting go?"

"Well enough, I suppose. We finally have new warden for Honda, Vezel.” He hadn’t been in any state to be pleased when the appointment was agreed, but with Umi safe in front of him, he was able to feel slightly smug. “Obviously no one told Murano she was my nomination. Only half of her Circle has been agreed on, but at least we have help now."

"Have I met any of them?"

"I don't think so. Other than that, nothing new has happened that's worth mentioning. Though Getz wanted me to tell you that the rota you helped plant started sprouting."

"That's good." Umi took another long drink of her tea before setting the cup aside. She leaned into toward him and grinned. "So what did you have planned for the next-" she glanced at her watch and glared at the time "-half an hour?"

"What did you want me to be doing?"

"Me, for a start."

He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he leaned into her, laughter welling up inside his chest. "And after that?"

Umi grabbed hold of his face and kissed him. His mind went blank as she moved, pressing him back into the settee and climbing onto his lap. She pulled away to unbutton her waistcoat before shrugging it off and leaning back in.

Clef unfastened his mantle. Umi helped him pull it off before it was dropped unceremoniously on the floor. He shucked his outer robes, then went to work on her shirt while she started on the fastenings of his. He pushed her shirt off her shoulders and slid his hands up her sides over the smooth fabric of her undershirt. His thumbs just brushed the soft curves of her breasts when Umi hissed in a breath and took hold of his wrists, pulling his hands down.

"Maybe not there today? My chest’s been a bit sore this week."

"Are you sure you're alright?" He pulled away to look at her in the face. She'd strained her magic terribly only a few weeks ago and could easily still be feeling it, but there was something else - something like a warning bell, ringing in the back of his head.

"Yeah, I'm fine.” She waved a hand, flushing slightly. “My period's probably going to start soon. My chest always gets a little sore before it does." Leaning in, she whispered in his ear. "But it makes other places sensitive in a _good_ way."

Shoving Clef's shirt off his shoulders, Umi wobbled precariously. Clef's hands went to her hips to hold her steady. The top of her skirt was slightly lumpy under his hands, not at all like the smooth lines of the clothing Umi had been wearing a fortnight ago. Leaning back to get a better look, Clef realised that Umi's skirt was rolled over at the top - which would explain the change in length.

He couldn't help it; he burst out laughing.

"Oh, shut up!" Umi punched him in the shoulder.

That didn't stop him laughing. If anything, it made it worse. "I'd wondered why your skirt seemed so much shorter."

"It's cuter like that," Umi declared, as she climbed off him to slip out of the skirt and her underlayers, giving him a chance to wriggle out of his own clothes before she crawled back onto the settee and pinned him to the cushions

"While I don't mind you dropping in for a quick hello-how-are-you, I hope you don't expect me to drop everything when you want sex." Clef tangled his fingers in her hair pulling her face toward him. "Don't think you can just use me for your own pleasure."

"I wouldn't dream of it." She said, grinning as she took hold of him. 

Clef let out a hitched moan that cut off when she dragged her teeth along his lower lip as she settled down over him.

.*.*.*.

"I should go," Umi said, for probably the third time in five minutes. She still didn’t move from where she lay across Clef, her body trembling with the lingering waves of magic rolling through her. She’d missed this. Not just the sex, but the closeness too.

"Just a little longer." Clef pressed a soft kiss to her neck and she curled closer to him. Why did she have to go home? If only she could stay the night.

"I can't." Umi shook her head, sitting up slowly. "I really need to get going. I'm late as it is."

"Ten more minutes?" 

Umi shifted against him, contemplating the offer. It would be lying to say she wasn't interested, but they would need to be quick about it. "Two," she countered.

"Five?" Clef’s hands slid up the sweat-slick skin of her back. 

"Okay," Umi breathed.

He lifted her up and tumbled her over onto the scattered cushions and robes on the other side of the settee. Umi's head thumped back. She grabbed the arm of the settee as his thrust into her again; everything was still so sensitive. Hooking her right leg over his hip, she wedged her left foot against the back cushions, trying to get some leverage to rock up against him.

He only needed to scrape his teeth sharply across her neck once, and she was a whimpering puddle again. The second time, he bit harder, and she cried out and arched against him. 

All too soon, the flood of magic rushed through her like a tidal wave, overwhelming and merciless.

When she finally caught her breath, Umi worked her way off the settee and started gathering her clothes. She was running far too late to worry about freshening up with more than the offered handkerchief before heading home. She stumbled a few steps trying to pull on her underwear and pick up her undershirt in one go.

Clef dug under the chair for her tie and his coronet. He tossed the former at her before shoving the latter back on his head. He was quite a sight, standing there in nothing more than his rumpled trousers and the jewellery of his post. She threw his shirt over at him, trying not to get anywhere within arms reach, or she was going to be _very_ late getting home.

There was a pause in the rustling of Clef's robes when she pulled on her skirt. She didn't need to look up to know Clef was watching her, but she raised her head to meet his gaze anyway. A hot blush spread across her cheeks at the look in his eyes. They might not have been doing this long, but she already knew he only felt satisfied when he’d done things _thoroughly_. Quick wasn’t his style.

Umi fastened her skirt and rolled the waistband back over twice while Clef looked on. Hand on her hip she challenged him. "See? It's cuter like this."

Clef quirked an eyebrow at her. "It looks the same, just shorter."

"Exactly." Running her fingers through her hair - they'd managed to lose her headband in the rush of things - Umi grinned and stepped toward him long enough to kiss his cheek. "I really have to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Shoving her feet back into her boots, she waved a final farewell before heading out at a run. She could make up her excuses on the train. It wasn't the first time she'd been late home because she'd gotten distracted by a friend.

.*.*.*.

In the end, Umi didn't get to use any of the excuses she'd come up with; she was just shoved toward the bathroom and told to be quick. And quick she was, running upstairs not ten minutes later to change into her party clothes before the guests started to arrive. She was still getting dressed when Mama knocked on her bedroom door.

"Come in," Umi said as she zipped up the back of her dress.

Mama walked in and waved for Umi to sit down at her desk. She started gathering up Umi’s hair into a simple twist on the back of her head. Umi fiddled with the hairpins on the desk, waiting to hand them up.

"When were you planning to tell us about your boyfriend?" Mama asked, startling Umi so badly she dropped the handful of pins, which scattered everywhere.

"I - What?"

Mama tapped Umi's neck with a finger. "These aren't from fencing club."

Umi grabbed up the small hand mirror and looked at her neck - and the small speckled bruises down the side of it. In her hurry to get home, she'd completely forgotten about asking Clef to do a healing spell. Biting back a curse, her cheeks heated up. It wasn't like she didn't want her parents to know she’d found someone, but she wasn't ready to answer all the questions about Cephiro.

"I'm happy you have a boyfriend, Umi." Mama twisted Umi's hair up before starting to pin it in place. "But you should be concentrating on studying mathematics and history, not human anatomy."

" _Mama_!"

Umi tried to jerk her head around to look at her mother, but got tapped on the shoulder and told to sit still.

"I'm not saying you need to stop seeing him. I just think you probably shouldn't be-" Mama tapped Umi's neck again "-so _involved_ just yet." When she was finished with Umi's hair, she crouched down beside her. "But I don't want you to feel you need to keep this a secret."

Umi nodded. "I'm not. It's just -" She chewed on her lip. "New?"

Mama smiled and said she'd be right back. Umi picked up the mirror and glared at the bruises running across the side of her neck, as she traced them with her finger. She hastily set down the mirror, flushing more, when Mama returned proudly holding up a stick of concealer and a cosmetic sponge.

"Turn here." Mama dabbed the make-up gently across Umi's skin. "It's just about covering. You don't want anyone else asking impertinent questions."

"Thank you," Umi whispered.

She finished with the concealer and reached for Umi’s foundation and brush. "Tomorrow, you and I are going out, just the two of us. We'll leave Papa at home."

"But -" Umi sat up straighter. She'd told Clef she'd see him again tomorrow. If she was out with Mama, that wouldn't happen - but Umi knew there was no arguing. Once her mother had decided they were doing something, they did it.

"You can see him next weekend." Mama smiled and then stepped back to admire her handiwork. "There. That should do."

Picking back up the mirror, Umi looked at her neck. The marks were nearly invisible. Her mother kissed her on the head and left her alone.

Umi dug through her bag for her mobile phone, only to find that its battery was flat. She chucked it back into her bag and slipped downstairs to Mama's study. That phone was the only one on that phone line, so she knew she wouldn't be overheard if she used it. Dialling Fuu's number first, Umi quickly hung up before she completed the call.

Hikaru would ask fewer questions.

One of Hikaru’s brothers answered the phone. Umi apologised, hoping it wasn't dinner time, she only needed five minutes. Hikaru was her usual bouncy self when she answered.

"Hey," Umi said. "I'm not going to make it tomorrow. I'm being hijacked; Mama wants to go shopping."

"Have fun!" 

"I'll try, but… um... could you tell Clef I'm sorry?"

"Of course." Hikaru’s voice grew serious. "Is everything okay?"

It wasn't exactly a secret between the three of them that Umi liked Clef as more than a friend - especially now he'd grown up - or that she was actively trying to pursue him. They hadn’t really talked since her private holiday with Clef, but considering what happened, Umi was pretty certain they would hear about it at some point, even if she didn’t bring it up. But it hadn’t happened yet - and she’d never actually told them she was going to stay with him, just that she was going back to Cephiro for a week.

"Everything’s fine," Umi said. "It's just - I sort of promised I'd see him this weekend."

They probably didn't need to know she'd been to see Clef only a few hours ago, even if it would give her a chance to vent about Mama knowing.

"We'll let him know. I'm sure he'll understand."

"Thanks, Hikaru."

.*.*.*.

True to form, Umi spent as little time as she could being sociable with her parents’ guests before escaping to hide in the upstairs sitting room. She'd barely hit the stairs when Satomi appeared behind her.

"Please tell me there's food up there and we don't have to go back down if we want to eat," Satomi said.

"Should be," Umi answered, reasonably sure her mother had sent the caterers up to her 'lair'. "If not we'll go down and steal a tray from the kitchen."

"You can do that. I live here now." Satomi walked into the room and collapsed onto the sofa, dropping an arm dramatically over her eyes.

Umi headed to the table to investigate the trays of appetisers. Most of them were the less fancy options that Umi preferred. She'd just picked up a shrimp and had it halfway to her mouth when Huki and Mako appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, good! Snacks!" Huki declared, dropping down beside her and taking a plate. 

His sister rolled her eyes at him, flopping beside Satomi in a flurry of ruffles. "We ate before we came!"

"That was a whole hour ago," Huki pointed out. "Plus, Umi always has the best snacks."

Not too long after, Daichi came strolling in with a satchel over his shoulder, looking smug. Halfway across the room, he pulled out a bottle of shochu and grinned at them. "Hey, Ryuuzaki, you feeling friendly tonight?"

"Would you shut up about that, already?" Umi picked up a cushion and aimed it at his head. "That was _months_ ago!"

"How about Hideaki, then?" Daichi winked at Huki who flushed bright red and swallowed.

"Oh, lay off it," Mako complained. "What are you bringing that for anyway? We don't usually do alcohol at Umi's place."

"I'm just trying to lubricate the festivities a little." Daichi thumped the bottle down on the table. "Celebrate my last few months as a teenager."

"More like drowning your inadequacies," Satomi said, getting to her feet.

"That hurts, Nakamura. Really, it does."

Satomi waved at him from the doorway. "I'm sure you'll find a way to dull the pain."

"So, what you're telling me is that I don't have a chance, Ryuuzaki?" Daichi asked, trying to use his most smouldering smile on her.

"No chance at all," Umi laughed. It wasn't that Umi didn't find him attractive; she thought he was gorgeous. Everyone who came into contact with him probably thought the same; Daichi was all perfect skin, faultless symmetry, and exquisite hair. But he _knew_ it, too, and was happy to use it to get his own way wherever possible. It wasn’t like he wanted to manipulate people - he just honestly seemed to think flirtation was fair payment for pretty much anything.

Just because he was a brat who Umi definitely didn’t want to date, didn't mean she hadn't thought about sleeping with him, once or twice. Not that she'd ever let him know that, of course. But aside from all the other reasons it would be a terrible idea, she rather thought he’d be as selfish in bed as he was everywhere else. 

Clef certainly hadn’t been _that_. Umi’s face went hot as she remembered his hands, his -

She ducked her head and ate another shrimp, while Daichi started quizzing Huki over whether a new movie was worth seeing. Satomi reappeared a few minutes later with a bottle of juice in hand, holding it up like a trophy when she walked back in.

"Hey!" Umi called. "Are you raiding my kitchen again?"

"Only when I have to. I got chased out by the caterers, so this is all I managed to get."

"Not a bad choice." Daichi nodded in approval and started pouring alcohol into glasses for those who wanted it, with Satomi adding juice to each before handing it over.

Despite the minor protest, Mako was the first with a drink in her hand, and Huki took the second with a light flush on his cheeks while he cast a wary eye at Umi. She pulled a face at him and he relaxed and went back to watching Daichi wave his hands expansively as he rambled on about whichever film they were interested in. 

Umi hadn’t been to the cinema in a while - she had more interesting places to go on the weekends. She lifted her glass to her lips, but the first taste made her stomach roll in disgust. Pressing a hand over her mouth as she heaved in a rough breath, Umi slammed the glass back on the table so hard she nearly broke it.

"Umi, are you okay?" Mako asked, grabbing her arm.

"Yeah, fine." Umi pushed the offending drink as far away from her as possible. "I think - I'm just not feeling it tonight."

"It's the guilt, isn't it?" Daichi turned, a grin pulling at the edge of his 'serious' face. "You're worried what Mama and Papa would think if their perfect daughter gets drunk again?"

"No. But I definitely don't want to be hungover tomorrow when Mama starts actually asking me questions about my new boyfriend." Umi picked up an empty glass and poured herself some of the juice, and downed the whole thing, swishing the last mouthful around to get the stomach-churning taste of the shochu out of her mouth. It was weird; she hadn't minded it the last time - in fact, she'd rather liked it - but now it felt like her entire body was trying to reject it. Filling her glass again, she sat back on the floor only to realise everyone was staring at her. "What?"

"Since when do you have a boyfriend?" Satomi asked, scooting closer. "And why haven't I heard about him? I thought we were supposed to be friends."

"For a few weeks, and it's not like I've actually told anyone about him. Mama just - found out?" Umi held her drink closer, wishing she could hide behind it. "You _have_ heard about him, though. Remember the guy I was talking about a few months ago?"

"The hot, foreign one?" Mako asked, leaning forward when Umi nodded. "Did things actually go somewhere with that guy?"

"Oh! Is this that - what was his name?" Satomi waved a free hand excitedly. "It was weird. Like a music thing…"

"Clef," Huki said, his voice quiet. "You said his name was Clef."

"Yeah, that's it! Clef." Satomi bounced up even more into Umi's personal space. "You have to tell us everything!"

"It's none of your business," Umi said, trying not to blush, her cheeks were getting hot anyway.

Daichi leaned his elbows on the low table and looked at Umi with grin curling over his lips. "What I want to know is how your mother found out."

The heat rushed up Umi's neck and face and she pressed a palm to her cheek trying to will it to cool down. This was so stupid. It wasn't like the lot of them hadn't discussed all their various first (invariably disastrous) attempts at dating over the years. “I was late home today?” She forced herself to not touch her neck. 

"Is _that_ why you skipped out on fencing club today?" Mako demanded. "You were making out with your boyfriend, instead."

Umi shrugged. "At least I didn't have to try making up an excuse about why I was sweaty and gross when I got home." She reached for one of the little glazed meatballs, plopping it in her mouth before she had to answer any more questions. Not that they stopped asking once she’d swallowed, but she pointedly picked up another meatball, not responding.

Once her friends realised they weren't getting anything more out of Umi about her new mysterious boyfriend talk turned to other things: club activities, people's new haircuts, and anything else they could think of that had little or nothing to do with any sort of exams or studying. This was their time to unwind and ignore the rest of their responsibilities.

"You're going to get fat if you keep eating like that," Satomi said when Umi absently stuffed another meatball in her mouth, then picked up one of the crunchy bits of bread with the herby tomato stuff on it.

Looking down at the food in her hand and the now mostly empty plates, Umi wondered just how much of it she'd actually eaten. She was still hungry, so it couldn't have been that much, right?

"It'd take more than that for Ryuuzaki to get fat," Daichi laughed. "If anything, it wouldn't hurt if she gained a few pounds."

"Hey!" Umi said, reaching around to smack him on the shoulder.

"True," Satomi agreed, sidling up to Umi, poking her in the side. "You might actually grow some boobs if you gained some weight."

"Oi!" Umi flailed around at her. "I have boobs!"

"They're no bigger than when we were fourteen," Mako declared, her cheeks flushed from the alcohol. "You still don't even wear a bra most of the time."

Umi's face burned as she told Mako to shut up and picked up the closest cushion to throw it. But she couldn't say they were wrong; she had only really grown upwards since they were fourteen. Those few inches had put her at roughly the height Clef was now, but with all the magic and sword practice on the weekends as well as fencing, she burned as much energy as she could eat, and then some. Her figure had remained pretty much ‘stick with muscles’.

"Maybe you should get your new boyfriend to massage them so they get bigger," Daichi offered with a cackle.

"You are such a _pervert_!" Umi shouted as she pushed him over and smacked him in the face with the cushion she’d been holding, while the rest of their friends cheered her on.

.*.*.*.

Despite not drinking any alcohol, Umi still woke the next morning with an agonising headache. It wasn't helped in the least by the cat charging in and thumping onto her chest when Mama opened the door. She swore at the cat and shoved him off, but still didn't get up immediately.

"Umi," Mama sighed, and Umi didn't have to look up to know the look she was getting.

"I wasn't drinking," she said and dropped her head back into the pillow. "It's just a headache."

Umi may have been doing all sorts of things her parents weren't aware of - travelling to another dimension on weekends being one of many - but she never actually lied about it. She just hadn’t... told the _entire_ truth.

She heard something thump down on the desk, but she wasn’t prepared to see the brightly coloured box of condoms when she looked up. " _Mama!_ " she squawked, her face going so hot it was painful.

"We both know I've never been able to talk you out of anything you've decided you're going to do," Mama said, giving her a serious look. "Still, I would rather not be a grandmother until I'm at least forty. And I want you to be safe."

Umi stared at the box of condoms, then at her mother. Obviously, she'd taken the marks on Umi's neck as evidence that she was sleeping with someone. Not that her mother was wrong, but it was _embarrassing_ for her to - well - know.

If Umi said she didn't need them, her mother would probably outright ask her if she was having sex, and she'd never been able to lie - especially not to her mother. The last thing she ever wanted to talk to her parents about was her sex life, and magical contraception was not the topic she wanted to introduce them to Cephiro with.

Thankfully Mama didn't linger on the topic, she just ruffled Umi's hair and said, "Come on, sleepy-head. Breakfast is waiting."

Umi hurried into her clothes - the little, ruffled dress she’d planned to wear to Cephiro, but with a shirt underneath rather than the cardigan she would have taken off once she arrived at the Castle. 

When she made it down to the breakfast room, Mama and Papa were already sat at the table. Mama’s hand rested gently on Papa’s arm as she spoke to him, and he turned and smiled at her, eyes twinkling. Umi paused in the doorway watching them. She’d often found their lovey-dovey behavior embarrassing. They were always so open with their affection compared to her friends’ parents. Now she was older, she thought it was kind of sweet, but she wasn't about to let them know that.

Papa looked up as she walked in and grinned. “Good morning.”

Umi sat down at the table, watching him suspiciously. “Morning.”

“So, Mama’s been telling me that you have a boyfriend.”

Tightening her grip on her fork, Umi stared down at her plate, willing herself not to blush, despite her cheeks growing steadily hotter the longer she delayed saying anything. 

"You never did mention his name," Mama said, not waiting for Umi to gather herself for a response.

Umi glared at her mother. She knew perfectly well that her parents had checked up on most of her close friends over the years, even Hikaru and Fuu. She’d refused to let herself mention the names of her Cephiran friends since that first visit; too many people they couldn’t find a trace of would only make them worry. "You’re not going to investigate him."

Mama laughed, but she didn't deny that as a goal. "Just one name, then. What do you call him?"

"Clef," Umi said, giving in. It wasn't like they could find him if they tried. "I just call him Clef."

"Hm. That's an unusual name," Papa said. "What do his parents do?"

"They're dead." Umi was glad to be able to answer that question honestly.

Papa paused and set down his cup. "Does he live alone, then?"

Umi chewed on her lip. That was a complicated question to answer. "He has his own apartment near… I guess it’s sort of near Tokyo Tower, in a building with some of our other friends, but he also stays in the country part of the week with family."

"You've been to visit him at his apartment, haven’t you?" 

"I only saw it for the first time yesterday." Umi couldn't help it; she blushed. "He made a pot of tea and we talked about school."

Hopefully it wasn't that obvious that she saw his place for the first time because they'd had sex there. Her fingers went to her neck, and she knew that Mama knew something had happened between them that was more than just talking.

Mama took Papa’s hand and smiled. “Darling, do you remember when we used to just sit and talk for hours?” 

“Oh, to be young again,” Papa agreed. 

Umi ate her breakfast and tried to ignore her parents reminiscing about the early days of their relationship.

.*.*.*.

Despite Umi being absolutely certain that shopping was just a front for Mama to further interrogate her about Clef, her mother didn’t actually ask any questions for the first few hours they were out. Umi watched her warily whenever she would suggest Umi try something on, or ask which colour Umi preferred of some dress, but she didn’t bring up the topic again for a long while.

Obviously, this was just a way to lull Umi into a false sense of security. Umi’s suspicions were proved correct when they went to a small cafe for lunch. 

After they ordered food and drinks, Mama turned her full attention to Umi. "So, while we’re waiting, why don’t you tell me a little more about this Clef."

Umi eyed her. “Like what?”

“What’s he like?” Her mother gestured elegantly with a hand. “What does he do?” 

"Well he’s kind of a grouch, I guess. He works in the government and he teaches some. He has like five other jobs too, but those are the most important ones. And… I like him."

"He’s a grouch and you like him?" Mama smiled at that. "What do you like about him?"

"I like arguing with him?" Umi offered. She’d never really thought about what she liked about Clef. "I like spending time with him."

Their drinks arriving was only a momentary distraction, before Umi found herself being asked, "Is he cute?" 

"Mama!" Umi flailed a hand at her, her face unbearably hot. "I - yes? He’s very… he’s pretty. Even if he’s too skinny half the time because he gets too wrapped up in whatever he’s doing and forgets to eat while he’s trying to save the world and all that."

Mama stirred her tea. "When do Papa and I get to meet him?"

"I… um…" Of course, they would want to meet any boyfriend she had, but how was she supposed to introduce them?

"If he’s working in government, I assume he’s older than seventeen," Mama said, setting the spoon down and lifting her cup. "Which means he at least needs our approval to be seeing you, if not more than that. I can’t approve of someone I have never met."

Umi poked her sandwich. "I’ll talk to him about it. Maybe we can work something out soon?"

"I expect to meet him by the end of next month."

"Next month?" Umi pulled a face. That was less than six weeks. In three years they hadn’t even tried to get anyone else across with them. If things bounced back to Cephiro, what would happen to people?

"That’s plenty of time to make dinner plans," Mama said. "If he refuses, perhaps his intentions aren’t very good."

"He’ll agree. We just - he’ll have to check his schedule. I don’t know when he’ll be free for long enough?" She’d have to talk to Hikaru and Fuu about how they might do this. Maybe they’d had some ideas since they’d been talking more seriously about their futures in Cephiro.

There was always the option of telling her parents they were meeting him at Tokyo Tower and trying to get them across to Cephiro. Which would make explaining the whole other-world thing easier.

Food arrived, and Umi threw herself into the distraction, but the plates were empty and the bill paid far too soon. As they walked out of the cafe and out into the sunshine, Umi suddenly found herself asking "What would you say if I wanted to study abroad?"

Mama stopped walking and looked over at Umi. "What happened to attending university here in Japan? Is this Clef going abroad?" She didn't sound very happy. "I am glad you have found someone you like, Umi-dear, but you are perhaps a little young to be following someone to a foreign country."

"You married Papa when you were sixteen!" Umi argued. 

"Which was not the best idea I’ve ever had." Mama grinned. "I’ve never regretted it - but things would have been a lot easier if I’d waited a few more years."

Maybe Mama had a point about rushing into things, but Umi hadn’t made her decision lightly. She just needed to work out how she was going to tell them about her plans. There were only a few more months before her parents would be paying for exams she didn’t need to take - that she wasn’t planning to take. 

But even if she did explain Cephiro - even if she managed to take them there - would they really believe she wasn’t just moving for Clef?

"I’m not planning to get married yet. I just -" Umi sighed. "I don’t know. They teach some things elsewhere that they just don’t teach here."

"Why don’t you prepare a proposal of your plan, then Papa and I can consider it."

"A _proposal_?" Umi spun round and stared at her mother. "It’s still just studying, only - only abroad. It’s not like - _Mama_!"

Mama waved off Umi’s frustration with a flick of her hand. "I just want you to prove to us that you have thought your plan through. Write the whole plan out: where are you going; what university will you attend; what courses do they offer; and what do you plan to do with the degree once you have it? I want you to convince us that it’s the right choice for you before I’ll say yes."

"You weren’t making me do a proposal for my choice of university in Japan."

"There wasn’t a boy involved in your choice then."

"I thought you wanted me to find a boyfriend! You and Papa always say you want me to find a nice man to marry, but suddenly, when I’m actually seeing someone, it’s all ‘you’re too young’ and - and _business proposals_ ," Umi said, stomping off in a huff. She’d spent years of her life with her parents’ teasing her with their over-the-top, lovey-dovey melodramatics, and talk about finding someone wonderful to love her, but as soon as she was actually in something like a serious relationship, why was everything different? 

Irritatingly enough, Mama just laughed as she caught up with Umi.

"I never once said you can’t see him. You just ought to be sensible about it. You’re awfully young to be dating someone in their… twenties?"

"I’m old enough." Umi crossed her arms and refused to play into her mother’s attempt to discern Clef’s age - not that she’d possibly manage to guess the truth. "And you know perfectly well that life doesn’t run according to a business plan."

"And it shouldn’t." Mama patted her arm. "Enough about all this. Let’s go have a look in there and see if we can’t come out with something pretty."

“I don’t need any more clothes,” Umi muttered.

Her mother paused. “How long have you known your Clef?” 

Umi blinked at the apparently rebounding subject. “We met when I was fourteen?”

Her mother nodded, like she’d been expecting as much. “And you have been friends these past few years? You’ve seen each other regularly?”

“With Hikaru and Fuu and a group of other friends, yes,” Umi offered, suspicious where this was going.

But Mama beamed at her. “Then he’ll have seen most of your outfits already. Don’t you want something nice he hasn’t seen before, to wear when you tell him he has to meet us? Wearing the appropriate weapon for the occasion can help win arguments, you know.” 

“Mama!” Umi burst out laughing, and let her mother take her hand and lead her into the little shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts welcome and appreciated. (Good, bad, and even nonsensical flailing.)


	12. In which Clef learns of a mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers! I hope you've had a wonderful May! I had a lovely birthday yesterday, and generally a good day. The whole birthday outing and such obviously delaying posting of this chapter a little, but I think it is probably worth it.
> 
> There is a small content warning for this chapter: this chapter contains discussion of a possible contraception failure, with fleeting mentions of abortion as an option if anything happens because of it. (So fleeting, you'll probably miss them if you blink.)

The next week didn't pass nearly as quickly as Umi would have liked. By Saturday morning Umi was fidgeting nearly incessantly in her seat in lessons, barely focusing on what her teacher was saying. All she could think about was getting to Cephiro.

It was Clef's day off, and she had decided she was going to make the most of what time he had - as many times as they could manage. Maybe then she would be able to think about something beyond the touch of his hands on her skin as they moved together, his body pressed against hers, the feeling of him inside her. 

At the final thought, she blushed, pencil frozen on her paper as she pressed her knees together.

"What's got you all flustered?" Rika hissed, reaching over to poke her in the side.

"Nothing." Umi shook her head and laughed, cheeks burning.

She tapped her pencil against her lips and stared up at the clock, willing it to move faster. If she'd known that missing out last Sunday's visit would leave her feeling so unsatisfied - touching herself this week had mostly just wound her up more - she might have tried to work out some way of getting free from her mother for a few hours, not that she would have managed it, but she'd have definitely tried.

When the school bell rang at noon, Umi was one of the first ones from her class down at the shoe lockers to change. She’d traded her cleaning duties with Yui so she could get out as quickly as possible

Umi had her boots out of her locker and was reaching for her phone to let Fuu and Hikaru know she was going to Cephiro a day early when Mako appeared around the corner. "I knew it! You're ditching us for the _boy_ again, aren't you?"

"I already retired from fencing club!" Most third years had dropped club activities after the summer holidays to focus on studying for university entrance exams. Umi was still turning up for club training during the week despite her official withdrawal, but she had _plans_ for her new free hours on Saturdays.

"At the party you promised you'd come today," Mako said, snatching the boots out of Umi's hands and shoving them back into her locker. "You can wait a few more hours to go see your _boyfriend_."

"Mako!" Umi wailed, but let herself be dragged back into the school for just a little longer.

.*.*.*.

Clef felt ridiculous about how much he’d missed Umi over the past week. This time last year, Umi had been so busy with family and school commitments he hadn’t seen her for several months. A single week apart - when she seemed well - shouldn’t leave him so frustrated that he couldn’t even talk to her.

Part of that might just be his desperate wish for a distraction. Murano was doing his level best to be a barrier to anything Clef was trying to do in both the Council and the Mage’s Guild. Though he hadn’t outright said it, Murano was also heavily implying Clef had lost his ability to be rational now he’d ended his near four-hundred years celibacy, as if that suddenly made him unfit to be Guru. If it did, neither the Council nor the Guild would have approved the change in the first place. 

It wasn’t as if this nonsense would gain Murano anything - whatever he actually wanted. Clef highly doubted the Guild would vote in a Master Mage who was willing to throw over their partner of more than a century to take the post.

Unless, of course, he just wanted to make Clef miserable, which he was managing quite well enough.

Knowing Umi, if he complained about it to her she’d go find someone to shout at, which would probably only make things worse. It would still be better than Ferio’s ‘I told you so’s, and he didn’t dare bring up the topic at home. Getz would only say in his ‘professional opinion as a healer’ they might have a point, before laughing again at Clef not showing Umi nearly as much of Mazda as he should have. ‘A tour of the bedrooms doesn’t count’, he’d said, and Aveo had snorted and agreed.

Clef was glaring at a financial report trying to make sense of the Guild’s spending when his office door was suddenly flung open. 

He jerked his head up to see Umi stride into the room, glancing quickly about before throwing her bag to the floor and turning back to slam her hand against the door. He could feel her magic pulse through the shield as she threw power into it, far more than was needed to ensure their privacy. His pulse sped up, a shiver running through his chest. "Umi?"

When she turned back, her eyes were dark. "I need you to touch me."

"I have a meeting in twenty minutes," he said, not sure he actually cared. His blood and even his magic were being swiftly diverted from where they should be, and there wasn’t going to be much concentrating on the report in his hands even if he sent her away.

"So we’ve got twenty minutes," Umi said, a grin on her lips and her cheeks flushed. 

"But this is my office," Clef protested.

"Well, I’ve always thought your desk looked sturdy."

Clef’s thoughts, his breath - _everything_ stalled out on that one insistant image.

He set his pen down before he could snap it, and cleared his work from the middle of his desk before even managing to formulate a reply. Umi took that as an answer, anyway, crossing the room in a rush and already working her underwear off underneath the skirt of her uniform. She kicked the scrap of fabric off as she rounded the desk, reaching for him, his clothes.

"You have fifteen minutes, at most," he managed, as he reached for her hips and pulled her closer.

"I’ll take them." She closed the final distance, tangling her fingers in Clef's hair and kissing him hard, as his coronet was pushed off and clattered to the floor somewhere.

The taste of her lips was intoxicating. He opened his mouth to hers as he helped her up onto the desk. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer, but he kept enough distance he could slide a hand under her skirt. Normally, he'd like to take things slow, ease into it, touch her everywhere but where she wanted him most, but he didn't have the time. Nor did it seem he needed to - she was already so worked up his fingers slid through slick dampness.

She cursed his name, her fingernails digging into his scalp sent a shudder running through him. She rocked against his touch, magic rolled off of her in waves. 

If she was going to go home after this and leave him until tomorrow, or even next week- 

"How long are you staying today?" He slid two fingers inside her even as he asked, sabotaging his own question, flashing magic as he moved them. She hissed in a stuttered breath.

"Do that again," she whispered. 

"That wasn't an answer." He crooked the fingers and drew them back with another flutter of power.

Umi crushed her lips desperately against his. It was barely any time before her breathing hitched into a moan. He kept his hand steady as she shuddered against him, resting her forehead against his shoulder as the wave passed.

"I'm not leaving until tomorrow," she finally managed. "We’ve got all night. And another-" she glanced at the timepiece on her wrist, "-nine minutes?" 

Her legs tightened about his waist, pulling him closer, her hands going back to his trousers.

"The desk’s not the right height for that," Clef pointed out, breathlessly. It was a few inches too awkward to waste their time on that. "How about -"

But Umi slipped down and turned so he was pressed to her back, getting her hands on his and pulling until they were both braced over the desk. "Like this?" she asked, and he could see the flush running over her cheeks and up her neck. 

His own thoughts blanked out for a moment. "You want me to -"

"Bend me over your desk," she clarified, and the noise Clef made could only be classified as a whimper.

Her body trembled with anticipation a he shifted the clothing out of the way. He held onto her hip with one hand as he pressed into her, and got his other hand back down between her legs as she braced on the desk and pushed back against him with a soft, eager moan.

His hips jolted forward at the sound, and he felt the pulse of magic jolt from his hand to his prick, or the other way around, arching through Umi’s power and she cried out, scrabbling at the desk for a hold. Clef stilled, breathing hard.

"You okay?" he asked, forcing himself to stay frozen in place as she gasped for air.

Umi rocked back against him, reaching down to hold his hand against her. "More," she gasped, voice half a moan. "Please, Clef -"

He obeyed, altering the angle he was thrusting at until she was crying out every time.

Reaching forwards in another failed attempt to brace herself against the desk as Umi knocked over one of the smaller stacks of papers, and they fluttered to the floor. Clef faltered, and she growled, grinding back against him. "I will clear this _entire_ desk if you don't finish what you started, old man."

He dug his fingers into her hips and thrust harder. Power arched a third time, and Umi’s body clenched tight about him - he managed once more before he lost all control, shuddering apart against her back.

.*.*.*.

Umi clutched the desk, her legs wobbly and weak. That has been… well, more than she’d imagined all those hours she’d spent in here watching him work. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a sharp and insistent knocking at the door.

Clef yanked himself away. Umi choked down a cry when he pulled out, her body trying to do things it wasn’t ready to do again. She leaned against the desk, everything still singing with satisfaction and the lingering spark of his magic.

Pushing herself upright on trembling arms, Umi straightened her clothing, as best she could, getting everything mostly back how it belonged - except her underwear which seemed to have gone missing again. She was combing her fingers through her hair when she turned to watch Clef fasten his trousers and smooth his robes back over them before lifting a hand to open the door, flushing riding high on his face.

There was a sharp itch tugging at Umi's chest as Clef flexed his fingers.

"I - Your shield," he said.

"Oh!" She turned to the door and grabbed for the magic she'd shoved into the door in her hurry for privacy.

The door burst open and Lantis came charging in. "Guru, there’s been a disturbance of the shields in…" He stopped just inside the door when he caught sight of Umi, his sentence trailing away. "...in this… area?"

Umi could only imagine what it looked like, the way she and Clef were standing there, both of them incredibly rumpled. Paper was scattered across the floor and Clef's coronet was nowhere on their side of the desk that she could see; it was probably what Lantis was looking at when his glance flickered to the floor and then back at them. (Hopefully. Otherwise, it was probably her underwear which would be far more embarrassing.)

"Clef's been teaching me how to use shields," Umi babbled, the excuse popping into her head and out of her mouth before she had a chance to second guess it.

"Ah, yes," Clef agreed, his voice squeaking far less than hers, but still not at all steady. "Umi's just been demonstrating what she's learnt. I forgot the wards on this room are monitored?

"Right." There was a pause as Lantis looked them over one more time, and Umi almost thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. "Shall I let the Guard know that you're going to be a few minutes late?"

"That - would be useful. If you don't mind?"

Lantis nodded, turned, and left the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Shit!" Umi hissed, turning to Clef as she leaned back against the desk. She looked down at herself and back at Clef. "He definitely knows we weren't doing magic." She reached up and straightened his mantle with hands that still shook a little, taking her time smoothing the long sashes running down the front of his robes.

Clef gently straightened her tie before slipping his hands back around her waist as he stepped forward. "Lantis will keep this to himself," he whispered against her lips. "And it's not like I'm not allowed. Mostly."

Umi slid her arms up about his neck as she leaned into him and a gentle, thorough kind of kiss which calmed her racing pulse until it started to do the opposite.

"Still, we might be better off using my rooms, rather than my office, next time." He pressed a final kiss to her cheek. "My meeting should be over within the hour, then I'll come find you?"

Taking a breath to steady herself, Umi flicked her hair back over her shoulder and smiled. "Are you going to give me a proper tour, this time?"

"As long as you don't distract me again." He rummaged through one of the teetering piles of papers, then picked up his coronet from the floor and shoved it back on his head.

Umi gathered up the mess from the floor and put it back up on the desk. She found her underwear - under the desk chair and, thankfully, not out where Lantis could have seen it - and put it back on. She had no idea what she was going to do with herself for the next hour, but lurking in Clef's office would be both boring and suspicious. 

She followed him to the door, stopping to pick up her school bag on the way, and strode triumphantly down the corridor, going back to the room she shared with Hikaru and Fuu to freshen up and grab some clean underwear.

.*.*.*.

Trying to ignore the lingering headache attempting to reassert itself now she’d come down off the enthusiastic high of earlier, Umi went in search of a snack. As she passed the archway for one of the garden rooms, Umi heard Ascot laugh with one of his friends whistling along. They stood under the largest taiya tree with another of his friends, gathering fruit.

"Hey, Ascot," Umi called, stepping into the room.

He spun around in surprise but smiled brightly when he saw it was her. "Hi, Umi! I didn't think you were visiting until tomorrow?"

"I came early." She grinned. There were large baskets under the edge of the trees filled with the golden fruits, and they looked delicious. Rather than ask to have one they'd already picked, Umi hoisted herself into the lower branches. There was plenty of fruit around her, but she had her eyes on the ones nearest the top, which were the tastiest. 

Unfortunately, her school boots didn’t have the best grip for climbing trees; she slipped, nearly falling into the hastily outstretched hands of Yaris, Ascot’s bird-headed bipedal friend.

"Do you want some help?" Ascot asked, and Yaris clicked his beak encouragingly.

Umi looked from Yaris's hands and up to his face. "A little help would be nice. I just wanted to get higher up," she said, feeling a little silly.

Yaris warbled at her, and she clambered into his hands. He stood there a moment, head tilting to one side as he studied her. Umi blushed, trying not to think about what he might be noticing. 

There was no way she was going to ask Ascot why his friend was looking at her with such interest after what she’d been doing. But Yaris warbled again and lifted her up to the top of the tree a moment later, so maybe it wasn’t anything important.

Settling into the branches, Umi picked a fruit about the size of a large apple, the skin going from deep gold to almost a rosy colour along one side. She sank her teeth into it, the sticky juice running down her chin. It tasted even better than she remembered, that sweet taste of pear crossed with peach and a sharp tang of something else she could never quite describe. 

She ate the second slower than the first, waving Ascot off when he called he was leaving and did she need a hand down? She would manage it somehow. When Clef found her, she was still nibbling a fourth fruit, or was it a fifth? 

"How’d you get all the way up there?" he asked, standing at the foot of the tree.

"With help?" she answered, swallowing her mouthful. Only then did she notice how sticky her hands were. She'd managed to drip juice all over herself. "...You can get me down, right?"

Clef laughed, and she glared down at him, tempted to drop the half-taiya she still held onto his head. He only saved himself from the headache by summoning a ladder before she'd managed to aim - and saying nothing about the juice stains when she got down. 

"Did you still want that tour of my rooms?" he asked, instead.

Grinning, Umi grabbed his hand - ignoring his protest at how sticky her fingers were - and pulled him all the way back to his rooms through empty afternoon corridors. He stopped outside the doors and laid a hand just above the main handle, instead of actually opening the door.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you access to my rooms," Clef said, lifting her hand and pressing it beside his on the door.

The spell washed up over her arm for a brief moment, tugging lightly at her magic before dissipating. Her skin prickled with pins and needles, and she rubbed her hand as Clef stepped aside and waved a hand at the door.

Rolling her eyes at him, Umi stepped forward and reached for the handle. Something clicked when she touched the door and it opened when she pushed it. "So, you basically just gave me a key to your place?"

"Well, you're the one who said you want to move in with me." Clef shrugged, looking like he was fighting a grin. "It also seems rude not to give you access if you think you might stay the night."

With a laugh, Umi took Clef's hand and pulled him into his rooms, shutting the door firmly behind them.

.*.*.*.

Clef leaned back against the headboard, pushing sweat-damp hair out of his face, and eyeing Umi as she perched on the side of the bed. She was looking at him speculatively over the glass of water she'd just returned with.

"Don't even think about it," he said. "I’m _done_ , and my wrists ache." He wanted to just curl up together and hold her for another hour, but the bell for the start of dinner had already rung. She shouldn’t miss any meals because of him.

"I wasn't," Umi laughed. "I was going to ask if you had any of my clothes in here, or if you had them sent to my room."

He waved a hand at the wardrobe. "Bottom shelf. Everything you left should be in there."

"Thanks." Umi passed him the half-full glass, and hopped off the bed to go look.

Clef took a long drink, watching her fish out the parcel he’d brought back and untie the light purple wrapping cloth. Everything had been washed, neatly folded, and sent back to the Castle with him. Getz was still poking fun at him for the underwear he'd found out in the orchard after Umi's visit, but it too was cleaned and in the stack.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted me handing it off to the other girls, so I kept it."

"I haven't actually talked to them about… _us_ , yet," Umi said, looking up at him with flushed cheeks. "It's not like it's anyone's business but ours, right?"

"Well, aside from that whole 'grabbing the ocean to keep Honda from falling off' thing," Clef said, with a huff of laughter that came out darker than he’d intended. "They were still bringing it up in Council this week."

Umi stopped and stared at him. "Clef, did I get you in trouble with that?"

"Don't worry about it." Clef waved her off and took another drink. Even though he wanted to complain, it wouldn’t help to have her fretting about it too.

Dress and underwear chosen, Umi tied the cloth and put the rest back. Clef was tempted to ask if she wanted to hang them up instead - he had cleared some space for her - but bit his tongue. She was probably only leaving it there until she left tomorrow anyway. Just because she said she'd like to move in with him next year didn't mean she was going to start keeping clothes in his rooms today.

He waved Umi off to shower first, and he’d almost stopped trembling by the time it was his turn, but he was very ready for something to eat as they headed down to dinner.

Ascot gave them the strangest look when they walked in. Clef would have wondered about it more if Ferio and Caldina didn’t also turn and fix him with equally indescribable expressions.

"That's a new look," Caldina said, eyes trailing over him longer than they'd ever done. "Don't think I've ever seen you without all the pomp and ostentation."

Clef looked down at himself. He'd grabbed a belted tunic woven in deep blues and greens over the first not-clashing trousers he’d found in the wardrobe. It felt a little strange to not be wearing his full regalia in the Castle, where he was ‘on the job’ every waking moment, but he hadn’t even thought about it until Caldina pointed it out. With a shrug, he said, "It happens sometimes."

"Looks good on you," Caldina said, thoughtfully. She cast a look at Umi beside him. "But I assume you already know that."

Umi snickered as she sat down. She’d complimented his outfit by offering to take it back off of him.

"That's nothing like subtle, you know." Ferio complained.

"I'm allowed to change my clothes," Clef said, sitting in the open space at Umi’s side. "I don't need to be acting as Guru to eat my dinner. You're the one always telling me that I need to separate my work from my personal life. I’m allowed to have one of those, now."

"No, you’re allowed to have a _sex_ life. And you know what I mean."

Clef ignored Ferio, distracted by the look on Umi’s face when she picked up the tray of gia. She honestly looked nauseated when she shoved it at Clef, waving it away.

"What did it do to you?" he asked.

"It just smells off," Umi said, wrinkling her nose. "Either it's gone bad, or I'm coming down with a cold, or something."

"If I get sick in the next week or two, I'm blaming you."

Umi stuck her tongue out at him, then turned her attention across the table. "Hey, Ascot, I still owe you a cake for your birthday."

Ascot shook his head, furiously waving her off with his hand not holding a fork. "Don't worry about it. You’re - you’re _busy_ with - with school - and, um..."

"I want to." Umi insisted. "I'll bring one next week. We could have a party." Caldina leapt on that suggestion with great enthusiasm, and kept the topic going through the whole meal.

When Umi had cleared her plate - and dragged another few pieces of bread across it to absorb any leftover traces of sauce - she started picking at Clef's.

"Hey!" Clef swatted her hand away.

"I'm still hungry," Umi complained as she stole a bit of fruit from under his hand.

"Then have a second helping." Clef grabbed the serving bowl of the dish Umi had been eating and thumped it down in front of her. "Stop stealing my food."

"Mean," Umi complained as she loaded her plate again, ripping up yet another piece of bread as she started eating.

Clef studied her over the rim of his cup. It had been three weeks since she’d wiped herself out - but there wasn’t much magic in Tokyo, from what she’d told him. It could be impacting on her ability to regenerate her magic to a stable level, which would account for the headache, too. If she was so low her body was trying to compensate with food… that wasn’t a good sign. "If it's going to drain you this much right now, you might want to reconsider travelling between worlds on your own." 

"Shut up," Umi muttered around her mouthful. "I’m fine."

"Three weeks ago -"

"Three weeks ago, I felt awful! I’m just a little tired still, okay?" she hissed with a glare and a wave of her bread. "I’m not staying home because of a little headache."

Clef dropped it, but kept watching her - at least until they finished and started to head out, and Lantis caught his attention. He was waiting by the door, looking serious, and Clef slowed.

Umi eyed Lantis warily. "D’you think this is about earlier?"

"Maybe?" Clef shrugged. "If you actually did manage to interfere with the shields, I'm making you fix it."

"Hey! I didn't use that much power. If the Castle shields can't stand up to _me_ , they're worthless anyway."

Clef laughed then waved her on ahead. From the look on Lantis's face, Clef felt he'd rather have this conversation without an audience. When Lantis drew him aside into one of the small storerooms where no one could overhear them, the conviction grew.

"About Umi…" Clef began.

"It's really none of my business," Lantis reached into a pocket and pulled out an envelope. "But, here. For your… _shielding lessons_. I wouldn't trust any of the short-term potions. There's very little magic in their world, and even the protection charms don't seem to hold once they’ve returned." He pushed the envelope into Clef’s hands and just walked out, like they'd only discussed something innocuous, not the fact Clef's week-long affair with a Magic Knight might have greater repercussions than a dent in his reputation. 

Clef stared after him. For the briefest of moments, he wondered how Lantis knew the protection charms didn’t hold, then he shook that thought right out of his head. There were things he didn’t want to know about his students - their sex lives being one of them.

Opening the envelope, Clef stared at the five little packets inside. Two had Tokyo lettering on them, but the text on other three labeled them as contraceptive sheaths from Autozam. Clef took a long, slow breath and folded the flap back down, a wordless shout echoing in his head.

.*.*.*.

Back in Clef’s rooms, Umi made herself comfortable on the settee with a pot of tea and book. She’d finished the tea and was beginning to doze off by the time Clef finally returned to his rooms. "What took you so long?" she asked, yawning about the words. "Did Lantis give you _the talk_ , or something?"

"Not exactly." Clef's face was worryingly serious, with not even a hint of the smile he'd had at dinner.

Umi shoved herself up. "Clef, what's wrong?"

He was clutching a small envelope, and she recognised his name on the front of it. He handed it over to her after a moment. "Something I hadn't thought of before, but I should have."

Umi opened the envelope and let out a startled squeak. "What's - why are there _condoms_ in here?"

"With all the excitement, I completely forgot what it _means_ that there’s practically no magic in your world." He dropped down on the settee beside her and rubbed a hand over his face. "The potion you took doesn't actually stop the possibility of fertilising something. Unlike the one I’m now taking, it simply keeps anything from, well, _sticking_. And that's only if the spell wound into it stays active for as long as it might take for everything to - leave your body. If the spell got interrupted by something - like returning to a world without magic to uphold it - it’s not likely, but it is _possible-_ that -" He swallowed.

Her fingers tightened on the paper as she stared at him. If the potion she'd used stopped working when she went home, that meant - "Are you trying to tell me that we've had a lot of vaguely unprotected sex, and you think I’m pregnant?"

"Only those first two or three days before mine was properly active." His voice was hushed. "And it was long enough before you went home that nothing from those first days should have been present by then." He wouldn’t look at her. "And Cephirans aren't... particularly fertile. That's one of the many reasons why our birth rate is so low."

"And we've never managed to bring anything back to Tokyo from Cephiro," Umi said, the thought reassuring her. "Even stains on our clothes just vanish, so the chances must be practically impossible."

"I know it's really none of my business," Clef looked at her with soft pink tinge creeping into his cheeks. "But when was your last - when did you last… _bleed_?" He waved an illustrative hand, which had Umi flushing.

"Um… A few weeks before I came out to visit you, while I was here in Cephiro with Hikaru and Fuu." Umi let out a little laugh and brushed a stray lock of hair back from her face. "That wasn't exactly a stomach ache I was complaining about."

Clef let out a relieved sigh. "So you're not due another for two or three months then?"

"What? No? It's more like every four or five weeks." Umi blinked at him. "Is it really three or four _months_ here? I'm jealous. I mean, I'm still not regular. It can be anywhere from three to nine weeks for me, so this isn't so… long?"

Clef went very still, presumably having done the calculation and realised that six - no, seven was more than the average four or five. "Umi… If you are, there are options, you don’t have to -"

"I'm not pregnant!" Umi waved him off. "And I certainly don’t want to discuss _options_ when it’s completely impossible."

"It’s not impossible. We’ve - "

" _Impossible_ ," Umi repeated, flailing her hands. "You know how last week I left without really having time to - to clean up? Which should have meant there would be - well, _you know_ … But when I got home there wasn’t any trace of you. Despite you - despite doing it twice. And I’m pretty sure you need _that_ to make a baby."

.*.*.*.

Clef stared at Umi for a long moment. He could tell she wanted to drop the topic, and part of him wanted to just give in and avoid the argument. She did have a point, but… "We still should talk about - all of this." One charged conversation about consequences wasn’t going to cut it. 

"What else is there to talk about?" Umi asked, stifling a yawn. "It’s not like anything else has really changed between us. We’ve just added sex."

"That’s all you seem to want to do now. I don’t want this relationship to be just about fucking."

"We do other stuff besides that," Umi said. "Anyway, that’s the bit you’re _allowed_ to do."

Clef sighed. "Sleeping with the same person for months, even a couple of weeks, is creeping into forbidden territory anyway, so that’s hardly an excuse. It looks more like a romantic relationship, or at least one with some emotion involved."

Umi thoughtfully chewed on her lower lip for a few moments. "So, you’ll get in trouble for sleeping with me too frequently if it looks like we’re being romantic about it, but it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t have feelings?"

"Essentially, yes? Not that you can prove the absence - or presence - of feelings, which is why that one’s basically unenforceable, but it would be a pain if anyone decides to try running with it. Which some people are apparently petty enough to do." The expression on Umi’s face made Clef a little worried about what she was about to come out with. "Why do you ask?"

"That’s still so stupid, but… the sex is good, right?" Umi asked. "I know I’m only just learning what to do, but you seem to enjoy yourself."

Clef blinked at her, not sure he was following where she was going. "The sex is excellent."

"Would it be less illegal if you _paid_ me? If we pretended this was just a business transaction, not a relationship?"

"I am not going to pay to have sex with you!" Clef’s voice wavered between a laugh and a shout. "No, let me rephrase that. I’m not going to pay every time _you_ want to have sex with _me_. If these two weeks are any indication of our future, I don’t have that kind of money."

"Considering how Caldina stared at that dress at the ball, I think you have more than enough to afford me." Umi grinned at him. "We could consider the current selection the first payment? If we say one dress per day, I still owe you a few more."

"Darling, the point of paying would be to get me attention I wouldn’t otherwise receive," Clef told her, now trying very hard not to laugh.

"Would it help if I played hard to get?" 

Clef opened his mouth and shut it again, the shook his head. "I _still_ couldn’t afford you. Unless you’re only interested in another - three days, then you’re planning to drop me?" Umi blinked at him. "Aveo cut me off, remember? I can’t get you any more clothes."

"Well, what if I paid you?" Umi offered. "I’ve got a purse full of coins in my room that I don’t know what to do with. One coin a time would last a while. Obviously, you aren’t as expensive as me..."

"...You want to pay me with the money _I_ gave you." Clef shook his head. "That was supposed to be for you to spend on yourself." He held up a hand when she first opened her mouth. "And I don’t mean like that."

Umi hummed thoughtfully, eyes crinkling up with repressed laughter. "How about paying you with cake, then?"

Clef couldn’t stop the laugh that came spilling out. "You’re ridiculous," he said, and kissed her.

Curling closer, Umi slid her arms around his neck as she caught his mouth again and again. When they eventually broke apart, she stayed put, resting her forehead against his. "So, what sort of cake do you want next week?"

Leaning back and shaking his head again, Clef considered his options. "A chocolate one?"

"Done," Umi said cheerfully, and kissed him again.

.*.*.*.

Of course, all the distraction in the world couldn’t last forever. Umi fell asleep almost the instant her head touched the pillows of Clef’s bed, and slowly the good humour faded back, anxiety doing its best to reassert itself. He lay in the dim light watching her breathe, the collar of her borrowed nightshirt slipping down over her shoulder a little more each time she shifted position. 

Umi had dark marks about her eyes and slight hollows in her cheeks. It wasn’t easy to spot when she was awake and her face was animated, but asleep…

He’d have identified it instantly as magic fatigue, if not for the slight but real possibility it was a different kind of drain altogether - either would be his fault, but one would have a _far_ more lasting consequence. Even if nothing came of it, either deliberately or otherwise, if they _had_ started a child -

Umi grumbled and turned over, and Clef realised he was tapping one foot against the foot of the bed so fast it was almost a vibration. He wormed out of the covers and off the bed before he could actually wake Umi up, and let himself out of the bedroom.

It was, most likely, fatigue. All the signs pointed to it, as did logic - Umi had nearly burnt herself out one day then went dimension-hopping the next, and if she was only really able to rebuild her magic when she was _here_ , then she’d probably used more in the last few hops back and forth than she’d have been able to pull in the meantime. But even _that_ was his fault - what had he been thinking of, dropping a barely-trained mage into the middle of a Circle, in a crisis! Had he completely lost his ability to reason?

 _Yes_ , said the back of his mind, sounding remarkably like Aveo.

He huffed, and turned, pacing back across the living room floor, carpet muffling his footsteps. It wasn’t like he’d told her to go grab the entire blasted ocean.

...He hadn’t needed to. Umi saw a problem, and she tried to fix it. In her position, with her limited set of skills - also his fault, as he’d both refused to teach her and refused to tell her so for months, so she hadn’t even known she should go look for another mage for lessons - things being what they were, he’d probably have done the exact same thing. Only he’d have ended up with slightly more explosive results.

And none of this pacing was helping _anyone_ , let alone Umi.

Clef forced himself to the armchair by the window, to sit down and to pick up the heavy law book and sheaf of notes he’d left half underneath it. Not hidden, but not right out in the open where he had to confront how illegal his actions were while they were being intimate.

He left the bookmark between the pages. No matter how far he got before the sick feeling in his chest and the thrumming nervousness in his bones faded enough to sleep, he would want to go over it while he was more awake. But skimming through it now would make it easier to digest in detail later - and perhaps exhaustion would least to one of those moments when he saw everything upside down and a brand new connection became apparent.

Hopefully it would. He had so much research still to do before he could even _worry_ about Umi without having to try and hide it. So he kept at it until he was so tired he couldn’t hold the book steady, and his eyes wouldn’t focus on the words anymore.

.*.*.*.

Umi startled awake when Clef flailed grumpily out of bed. His exit was followed in quick succession by the loud thumping of cupboard doors and the clanking of the kettle being put on. Yawning, Umi slid out of bed and followed.

"Morning," she said, leaning against the doorframe, stifling another yawn.

Clef startled so badly when she spoke that he nearly dropped the tin of tea in his hands. "Did I wake you?" he asked.

"Well, I can typically sleep through earthquakes, but they usually don’t curse while they’re rattling about "

"Sorry." Clef pulled out another bowl and mug for her. He was dressed and rushing out the door within ten minutes to the first of his meetings, leaving Umi with a quick kiss and a promise to meet her for lunch.

Left to her own devices, Umi decided to spend her morning in one of the gardens actually doing her school work. The gardens near the third tower got the best sun that time of day; her choice was entirely based on that, and not at all because it gave her a good view of the southern training fields.

A handful of young mages were out practicing offensive magic under the watchful eye of a stern-looking teacher. Umi spent more time watching the lessons than studying, but she finished her work by lunch time and headed for the dining hall.

Umi found Presea and Ferio there already, deep in conversation about the Smith’s Guild’s budget at the end of one of the tables. Umi dropped into the seat across from Presea and reached over for the plate of bread. Getting a waft of the cheese-fruit, Umi hissed in a breath through her mouth and pushed the plate further down the table as her stomach tried to turn over.

She must have looked as sick as it made her feel, because Presea asked, "Are you alright?" 

"I’m fine," Umi said, but neither of them looked reassured. 

"If you’re not feeling well, you should go see the Healers." Ferio said.

Umi rolled her eyes and waved him off. "Just because I have a cold or something? I’m not going to waste their time."

She was halfway through her first piece of bread and a bowl of spiced grains when Clef dropped into the seat beside her with a loud sigh. "I will be so much happier when this Academy nonsense is finally settled."

Ferio pulled a face. "I thought you had everything sorted except the location?" 

"Are they _still_ debating where to build that blasted thing?" Umi asked.

"You may have talked some sense into Livina at the ball," Clef told her as he dished himself some food, "and Sandero’s willing to listen to reason, but Talbot and the rest of them ‘just aren’t sure’." 

"Want me to come talk to them?" Umi grinned at him as she picked up her glass.

Clef laughed. "I’d like to see that."

They chatted amicably for a while, complaining about their current workload - or schoolwork, in Umi’s case - while they ate. 

When Presea and Ferio went back to work, leaving the two of them basically alone in the corner of the dining hall, Clef set his teacup down and looked at Umi with concern written all over his face. "How are you really feeling today?"

"I’m just a little tired, so don’t go trying to send me to the Healers or anything," Umi complained, picking up a bit of fruit. "I refuse to waste anyone’s time to just be told I need to rest more or whatever."

"You still ought to take it easy today. No sparring, or -"

"Rolling around in bed for hours?" Umi finished, amused at the irritated flush that ran up Clef’s face at that. She popped the last bite of fruit in her mouth and grinned at him.

"I’m not -" He shook his head and flailed a hand. "If it would get you to agree to have a nap, or at least rest the remainder of the afternoon, I do have a little over a half-hour before I need to be anywhere. But I’m assuming you have other plans."

"Next week, perhaps," Umi suggested. "After the picnic?" She put her hand on his leg, sliding it up his thigh as she added, "Unless I can talk you into going upstairs anyway?"

"We could just _talk_ ," Clef practically squawked as he removed her hand. "That would probably be restful?"

"Going upstairs would be _perfectly_ restful if you did all the work."

Clef didn’t budge. "I’m not joking, Umi. You need to recover. If this is magic fatigue, you’re not going to manage it spending your few quiet hours in Cephiro dragging me -" he lowered his voice to finish the sentence "- dragging me into bed. You need weeks of actual rest."

"It’s been weeks! Three of them," Umi said, crossing her arms, and pouting. She wouldn’t mind going upstairs for a quarter of an hour, but she wasn’t feeling nearly as desperate as yesterday. 

"Weeks of a proper connection to Cephiro!" Clef snapped.

" _Oh_." No wonder she was still feeling a bit worn out. It had gotten worse after last week’s visit, and the headache had hung around ever since, if she was honest. "Guess I should work out when I can squeeze in another overnight trip sooner than… next month." With the school festival coming up soon, she wasn’t planning to spend much time in Cephiro after next week - not until Cephiro’s New Year Festival, which was still weeks away.

"That’s not a bad idea," Clef said. "Or at least keep the short trips to a minimum until you’re able to stay for longer. I don’t _want_ you to stay away, but - I think you might be using more magic to get yourself here and back again than you can rebuild in a few hours. If you keep doing it, it’ll make things worse."

Umi sighed. "Well, that sucks," she muttered. "I’ll try to find time to get here for longer, I guess-"

"Making the trip with the others would help, as well," Clef offered, but that was all he had time for before someone from his next meeting spotted them and charged over, completely ignoring Umi to ask if Clef would walk with them so they could go over some things on the way. Clef gave her an apologetic look, but left, and Umi pouted for a minute before going to see if Hikaru and Fuu had arrived yet.

.*.*.*.

Umi spent the rest of the afternoon with Hikaru and Fuu, playing rowdy ball games with Ferio, a few of the off-duty Guard he knew, and some of the local children. 

It was late afternoon before they made it back to their room for Umi to collect her stuff so they could head back to Tokyo. She shoved her books back into her bag, then stood there staring at the neatly made bed, realising her mistake at the same moment as Fuu. 

"Where is your uniform?" Fuu asked, amusement creeping into her voice.

"Um… downstairs," Umi admitted. She went for the door. Hikaru bounced along behind her as she stepped out, and Fuu followed them both into the corridor.

"Guess we’re making a stop on the way down," Hikaru giggled, as the three of them headed for the central spiral ramp. She was laughing by the time they stopped outside Clef’s door, and Fuu’s smile had taken a wicked turn. 

"So, you stayed here last night?" Fuu asked, looking around as Umi opened the door. "In... Master Clef’s rooms?"

Umi’s face went hot. "Yeah…"

Further into the room, Hikaru was biting back a smile as she looked down at something near her feet. "I take it you slept well?"

Umi followed Hikaru’s gaze and let out a squawk. Clef’s outer robe lay on the floor right there by the door, and Umi’s waistcoat a few feet further in. The trail of their clothing extended through the living room to the bedroom door. In a rush, Umi gathered up as much as she could fit in her arms and flailed her way into the bedroom, dropping the lot on the bed to sort through it. 

Her skirt and undershirt were on the floor where she’d wriggled out of them. She could only find one sock in her brief search, but decided to just leave it. They’d be switching to winter uniform next week and she’d be back in tights, anyway. 

Hikaru and Fuu hadn’t followed her in, so they didn’t see the more embarrassing stains at least. She rolled her uniform as small as she could and shoved it into her school bag; she had to extend the straps to get it to hold shut, but managed to close it - just. 

When a second hunt through the pile didn’t turn up her tie, Umi gave it up for lost - she had others at home. She didn’t expect to walk back out of the bedroom to find Fuu holding out to her.

"It was under the chair," Fuu said.

"Thanks." Umi shoved it into the side pocket of her bag, face burning.

"Hey, Umi," Hikaru asked, standing near the window. "Is it true that half the country tried to fall off when you first slept with Clef?"

"What?" Umi blinked at her. "Who said that?"

"I overheard some whispering in the Guard room the other week. I mean, they only mentioned ‘Guru’ and ‘Magic Knight’ once before they noticed I was there," Hikaru explained, "but there was definitely talk about the country falling apart."

"The country didn’t fall apart. It was one ward that was already unstable to begin with and we stopped it." Umi said, and the other two just stared at her. "It wasn’t while we were having sex, okay! It was after we fell asleep. Nothing to do with the sex."

"You are actually sleeping with Master Clef then?" Fuu asked.

"Yes? Why else would-" Umi flailed a hand out at the room where their clothes had been abandoned.

"You get lonely sometimes," Hikaru offered.

Fuu nodded. "Your parents were away this weekend, right?"

"So you think I’d spend the night with Clef because I’m lonely?" Umi asked.

"It’s not like you haven’t slept at his place before," Hikaru pointed out. "You might not have been having sex, even if you were kissing a while."

"That was in his _office_ after I fell asleep in a chair." Umi shook her head. "You know what, it’s none of your business what we’re doing. Just like it’s none of my business that Hikaru’s sleeping with Lantis."

Covering her mouth with an over-the-top gasp, Fuu let out an almost convincingly shocked "Hikaru!"

Umi stared at Fuu. "How did you know?"

"I pay attention."

Hikaru laughed. "When did you work it out, Umi?"

"When Lantis gave Clef some condoms because he caught us doing it in Clef’s office." Umi grabbed her bag and headed for the door. "But... only some of them are from Tokyo?"

"Oh, yeah. Eagle brought some from Autozam the last time he visited."

" _Hikaru_!" Fuu and Umi said in unison, while Hikaru laughed. But she refused to ‘kiss and tell’ - at least, not while Umi wouldn’t share and Fuu didn’t have much to be sharing, and they headed back to Tokyo together all giggling.

.*.*.*.

Peach greeted Umi with his usual loud, unimpressed meows, nearly drowning out the message on the answering machine telling her that her parents would be taking her out to dinner this evening when they got home. She went upstairs to change into something a little more appropriate for a fancy restaurant and gathered up her dirty clothes to put them in the wash.

As always there was no trace of the taiya juice or anything else on Umi’s clothes when she pulled them out of her bag. It was like nothing had happened to them since she left Tokyo. The shirt was as white as it had been yesterday morning with no hint of smudged ink or sticky traces of juice down the front, just the pencil smudge on the pocket it had got at school before she left.

Seeing it relieved any lingering doubt she had about how impossible Clef’s worry was. They hadn’t managed to bring anything back from Cephiro except photographs. She didn’t expect that would ever change. 

If a few little stains couldn’t make it across, a baby certainly wouldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **In the next chapter:** Umi bakes the cake she promised to Ascot, and then... she _eats_ some of it.
> 
> Well, a few other things happen too, but that is obviously the important bit. 
> 
> Also, with holiday time and other obligations (like trying to stop distracting Down from working on Protecting You) this fic may end up with a brief hiatus for the month of June, and not have an update until July. But who knows... It might not be paused that long. 
> 
> While we wait for that, Down is writing me fic of this fic for my birthday (a little late now as I talked her into doing a final beta read of this fic for my birthday yesterday, rather than poking her for that) which will probably be posted in this series in the next week or so. And I will actually focus some time on writing some of the commentaries on the chapters and finish the current OC character profiles. (Keep an eye on my Dreamwidth for that).
> 
> As always, all questions, comments, and happy thoughts are welcome. Even flailing nonsense and emojis. Knowing I made you smile, makes me smile. All feedback is loved.


	13. In which Umi bakes a cake… and eats it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not quite two months! That's something, right? 
> 
> So, this chapter has and hasn't been finished for a while. Basically, when Down did the first read through edit on it back in June, she suggested it needed a little bit of something else. Also, I originally had this and chapter 14 as one single chapter 13, but I think they work better separately. They are two separate weeks, and a bit more setup happens.
> 
> Anyway... there is a chance there may be another update this month. Down and I are off on holiday to Wales starting Monday, and we won't be back for over a week. There is an embroidery project that needs working on, but the new draft of 14 is also finished, so just needs a polishing.
> 
> I hope you enjoy

Despite her protests, Umi knew she was more than just a little tired. Resting most of Sunday afternoon in Cephiro would have been more sensible than running around with her friends - but charging about had been a lot more fun. She still wasn't going to admit Clef had a point, even if ever since she'd come home from her week at Clef's she'd been crawling into bed a little earlier than usual.

Perhaps more than a _little_. The past fortnight had seen her bedtime creeping progressively forward until she was having a bath after dinner and going to bed almost immediately, but she couldn't shake the lingering exhaustion no matter how much she slept. If this was something like Eagle had felt when he was invading, she wondered how he'd managed to not fall asleep at the helm of the NSX all the time.

The extra sleep wasn't entirely a bad thing. With it came intensely vivid dreams that left her out of breath, trembling, and wanting more. Dreams that made her wish she already lived in Cephiro, so she could roll over and wake Clef up to do something about it. Instead, she lay there thinking about his touch and did something about it herself.

It wasn't as satisfying.

After school on Saturday, she'd dragged herself through the city and into her house only so far as the nearest sofa. Slumping into the cushions, she drifted off in an attempt to sleep off a little of the lethargy before Hikaru came round, supposedly for fencing practice.

Umi only managed to doze for about half an hour before the doorbell rang, but it didn't take much talking to convince Hikaru that baking Ascot's belated birthday cake would be more fun than athletics. Hikaru was never one to turn down an opportunity for cake. Umi set her up to mix the ingredients for that and got down another bowl.

"I thought you were just doing one?" Hikaru asked, gesturing with her whisk and splattering batter on the floor. "What's that cake for?"

"Clef," Umi laughed, whisking the smaller bowl of chocolate batter.

"It's not his birthday too, is it?" Hikaru asked.

"No. That's in… Cephiro's Second-month. Which starts about the end of December, right?" Umi asked and Hikaru nodded. "This - this is bribery."

"For what? More lessons?"

"I wish. He's refusing to teach me anymore until I can officially be his partner, otherwise, it looks like I'm his apprentice - or I become his apprentice - something like that. Then we couldn't date." She poured her batter into the smaller set of cake pans. "Can't a girl bake her boyfriend a cake without people asking questions?"

Papa chose that moment to appear in the doorway, startling Umi when he said, "Questions like 'When are we going to meet him?' because it's been two weeks, and you still haven't said."

"I didn't remember to ask last weekend," Umi complained. Papa raised an eyebrow and Umi flushed. He thankfully didn't comment on that admission that she'd not been with a school friend _all_ last weekend and just walked over to the kettle.

"Remember you only have until the end of the month before Mama will start trying to hunt this Clef down." Papa turned to Hikaru and smiled. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"No. Thank you, Mr. Ryuuzaki." Hikaru shook her head. "My family is expecting me home for dinner."

"I'll ask him at the picnic tomorrow," Umi muttered and shoved the chocolate cake into the oven. "As long as he's not too busy to show up."

When Papa took his mug of tea out into the garden, Hikaru thumped the bowl down on the counter and stared at Umi. "Have you actually told your parents about Cephiro?"

"No, I told them Clef's name when Mama worked out that I have a boyfriend." Umi picked up the bowl and poured the batter for Ascot's cake into the second, larger set of cake pans. "The problem is, they want to meet him, _soon_. You haven't got any bright ideas about how to do that, do you?"

"Not any new ones," Hikaru answered. "We could ask Fuu tomorrow, I know she's been thinking about it too."

"I suppose there's always the option of just convincing them to go with us to Tokyo Tower one weekend and just seeing if the spell will work." Umi sighed. "I'm not sure 'Hey, we're going to take you to a magical world to meet my ancient corpse of a boyfriend,' is exactly the easiest thing to explain, but I don't know how else to warn them about that jump."

"Probably not." Hikaru agreed, grinning. "Clef's not that old."

"Seven-hundred and fifty! That's like buried-in-the-ground-centuries old. Compared to that, we're still babies," Umi leaned back against the counter and sighed.

Hikaru was giggling by now. "He's only seven-hundred and forty-nine, you shouldn't exaggerate like that," she teased, drawing a laugh from Umi.

They spent the next hour melting chocolate and making fancy little lacework designs that would go on the cakes once they were frosted, which would be after they were cool - well after Hikaru had to leave, though she did stay until the cakes were baked and made off with the piece Umi cut off to flatten the one chocolate layer which had decided to balloon up out of the pan.

When they turned them out of their trays onto the cooling racks Umi's mouth had watered. The cakes smelled so _good_ she was tempted to pick a little off the trimmed bit of the chocolate cake for herself. Normally sweet things weren't her cup of tea, she just liked furiously whisking away the frustrations of the day and getting something out of it that her family and friends enjoyed. Plus, she was good at it, which was always nice.

Umi just dismissed it as being hungry. Especially when, after Hikaru had left, her father started cooking dinner for the both of them, as her mother was out - and Umi's actual cooking ability hadn't improved all that much without someone else making the important decisions like 'how much miso do you really need in this'. Her father, however, had the knack of it just as well as her mother did, as the smells emanating from the stove proved. By the time it was ready, she was ravenous.

After dinner, the cakes were cool enough to decorate; she got on with it even though part of her would rather go take a nine-hour nap. When she had finished whipping the icing, Umi dipped her little finger in to check the taste. Usually, she took the barest taste of it; today, she licked her finger clean, then blinked at it. Well, it hadn't been _that_ much.

Once both cakes were frosted and decorated, Umi set about tidying up. She gathered up the bowl, whisk, and spatula, and carried them over to the sink. Somewhere between the worktop and the sink, she'd lifted the spatula out of the second bowl and had begun licking the leftover icing off. When she noticed, Umi let go of everything, the bowl shattering at her feet.

Papa called to see if she was alright, and she didn't know how to answer.

Biting her lip, she shook her head and pushed the unwanted thoughts fiercely out of her head, because it most certainly couldn't be true. It was impossible. She was just letting the stress of school get to her; she was so tired her body was just craving any energy it could get.

.*.*.*.

Umi was surprised when Fuu turned up with Hikaru the next afternoon. She only needed one extra set of hands to get both cakes across to Cephiro, and Fuu was supposed to be busy until later, yet she walked in with Hikaru like she was expected. Fuu and Hikaru took a cake each, leaving Umi with nothing to carry but her handbag as they headed for the train.

"Hikaru called last night about your… predicament," Fuu said, as they neared the station.

"Yeah," Umi sighed. "Have you come up with any brilliant solutions?"

Fuu shook her head. "We were unable to discuss the logistics for very long last night."

"Kakeru wanted the phone to call his girlfriend," Hikaru laughed.

"If we can manage it, I would imagine it would be easier to bring someone from Tokyo with us to Cephiro than bringing someone from Cephiro _here_ ," Fuu said.

"So I'm stuck trying to convince my parents to come to Tokyo Tower," Umi sighed. "But even if I do, how are we supposed to get them to Cephiro? No, how am I even supposed to explain my parents wanting to meet _Clef_? He's not meant to be in a relationship at all, certainly not one that's reached 'meeting the family'!"

"We could introduce them to everyone," Hikaru suggested.

Fuu nodded in agreement. "Showing them Cephiro would probably also distract your parents from asking any … awkward questions."

Umi rolled her eyes. "Mama's already certain that I'm sleeping with Clef. I don't think it can get more awkward than that."

"How did your parents find out about Master Clef, anyway?"

"Because my mother notices things." Umi rubbed her hands over her burning face as she tried to force the memory of the box of condoms in her desk drawer out of her head. "But that still doesn't solve the weirdness of talking them into coming to Tokyo Tower."

"We may be able to take them from elsewhere," Fuu said. "Do you want to try getting to Cephiro from outside Tokyo Tower today?"

"How is that going help?" Umi asked, in a burst of desperation. "My parents are expecting to meet a normal man, not a literal wizard who lives in an alternate dimension! How do I explain _any_ of this!"

The other two went quiet for the next few minutes before Hikaru spoke again. "We don't _know_ that we can't bring Clef from Cephiro."

"We've never managed to bring anything back with us," Umi declared with a frustrated flail of her hands. "And that's certainly not for a lack of trying."

"But a person's not a thing," Hikaru said. "A person would have a will of their own."

"You may be correct," Fuu said. "Master Clef is very powerful, so if anyone could make it, he probably could."

"Even if he could, what happens when he's cut off from Cephiro? He's so old he might -"

"But _we're_ not cut off from Cephiro," Hikaru cut in. "Our connection is always there. The magic may be stretched and pulled tight, so it can't do - some things, but it's still there."

"If anything happened to him…" Umi sighed, and Fuu patted her gently on the shoulder. "But what could it do to Cephiro, bringing Clef here? Isn't he still connected more tightly than anyone else?"

"We'll just have to keep thinking about it," Hikaru said. "There must be some way to make it work."

Fuu nodded in agreement. "Maybe you could talk to Master Clef about it?" she suggested. "Perhaps he might have some ideas."

"You're probably right." Umi knew she was going to have to tell Clef about her parent's request to meet him soon, so she may as well use his knowledge of magic while she was at it. She rubbed her hands over her face again. Why couldn't she have fallen for someone _normal_ , someone who didn't live in some weirdo other world?

"Though…" Fuu said slowly, with a strange tone to her voice. Umi and Hikaru both looked at her. "Master Clef may be able to bring himself, but - what about his clothing?"

The three of them stared at each other for a long moment, then burst into laughter.

.*.*.*.

Clef had done his best to rearrange his afternoon schedule so he had a reasonable amount of free time that overlapped with Umi's visit. The Academy committee meeting still ran over time, but he wasn't too upset. They'd finally settled on a location and were finalising the proposal to go before the Council at the end of the week - and he could hardly wait to tell Umi that Livina had used her drawings from the ball to argue for the location they'd settled on. Umi would be pleased to know she'd had a real impact on things.

He couldn't shake the fond smile for the rest of the meeting, and there was a certain lightness to his step when he made his way back to his office to drop off paperwork. He shuffled through one of the drawers and pulled out the little book he'd picked out for Ascot. Clef was moderately terrible at remembering birthdays unless reminded, and Aveo didn't know Ascot, so that hadn't happened. But better late than never, and the text - a pretty rare treatise on summoning theory that would tie in nicely with what Ascot had been practicing recently - was educational enough no one should argue about _that_ expense. (He'd got as far as the title before Aveo rolled her eyes and dug out a credit note for him.)

The sunlight was warm on his face as he strode out into the garden Caldina had chosen for the occasion. Most of their friends were already there on the large rug that covered the grass, passing food and drink between them. Umi looked up at him and smiled brightly, and he crossed the grass to drop down beside her, his robes fluttering about him.

Umi laughed and picked up a paper box from her other side and passed it over with a grin. "Chocolate, as requested."

Inside was one of the prettiest cakes Clef had ever seen her bring. It was all decorative swirls with webs of the hard chocolate stuff stuck about them. In the centre was one of those tiny puragu-like fruits - he was pretty sure she called it 'strawberry' - sliced and fanned out. Unlike the large cake that sat in the middle of the small feast before them, this one was barely wider than the length of his hand - sized for him alone.

"Is that adequate payment for services rendered?" Umi asked, voice low. She bit her lip, holding back the laughter that made her eyes sparkle merrily as she waited for his answer.

Clef really wanted to kiss her, right then. Not just as a thank you for the cake, but - he'd missed her company this past week. He swallowed back the urge and closed the lid on the box, only to notice their audience - several people had stopped to watch them with raised eyebrows. Caldina's judgemental expression was expected, but not Ascot's quiet regard. When Clef caught his eye, Ascot dropped his gaze, a flush colouring his cheeks. Ascot hadn't been flustered last week when he'd come to Clef's office and asked to be of assistance. He'd even asked if Clef was looking forward to seeing Umi again, with a shy smile on his lips.

Perhaps seeing them together was - different? Or he was wondering, as any reasonable person might at their own birthday party, whether Clef had gotten him a present. It wasn't until Clef looked down to his pocket for the book that he realised how close he was to Umi. Any closer and he'd be on top of her. He dug out the book he'd brought and leaned across to hand it to Ascot, making sure to sit back down with a little more space between himself and Umi.

Hikaru was smiling at them. "Do you want some cake?" she asked, cutting a slice of Ascot's birthday cake and passing it over to Clef before he got a chance to answer. "Umi outdid herself on the decorating, don't you think?" There was more of the chocolate webbing and sliced fruit stuck decoratively into the elegantly applied white coating on this cake.

"It's only a little fancy frosting," Umi argued, plucking one of the bits of chocolate off the edge of Clef's cake and popping it into her mouth. "It's not that hard."

"Hey!" Clef pulled a face at her and held his plate closer. He managed a few bites before Hikaru, prompted by Ascot's investigation of his new book, started asking questions about the finer points of summoning. Clef was mid-explanation, gesturing his fork in the air when Umi reached back over and stole the fruit off the top of his slice of cake. He stopped mid-sentence and watched her eat it in two slow bites.

Ascot picked up the explanation where Clef left off, leaving him free to roll his eyes at Umi. He ate the second piece of chocolate off the side so she wouldn't steal that too, and turned his attention to Ferio. His cake should be safe with only actual cake and icing.

Umi had joined the summoning conversation with a laughing comment about how summoning the Mashin should count, complete with an enthusiastically sweeping gesture that nearly collided with Clef's plate. She paused, wetting her lips as she watched his fork travel from the plate to his lips.

The happiness from seeing her sank like a heavy stone in Clef's stomach. Umi didn't eat sweet things. She'd eat desserts that were tart but not _sweet_. Not like the frilly white confection he held in his hand. And yet, she was watching him eat intensely.

Clef let out a heavy sigh and passed his plate over. "Have it. Turns out I'm not that hungry."

Umi blinked at him but didn't argue. She just stared down at the dish in her hands. Only Clef watched when Umi lifted the fork to her mouth. No one else seemed to have noticed anything unusual in that. Caldina was discussing something work related with Ferio; they'd pull in almost everyone else except Hikaru and Ascot who were still talking about Cephiran creatures.

Closing her lips over the cake, Umi shut her eyes and let out a happy sigh.

The group slowly stuttered to silence with the third bite and the soft hum of pleasure that accompanied it. Clef glanced at the others and for the briefest of moments, Ascot was watching him, not Umi. But as soon as Clef turned, Ascot looked away.

.*.*.*.

From the moment the fork touched her lips, Umi didn't care about anything but the slice of cake in her hands. It was just _so good_. The frosting was silky sweet and the strawberries perfectly ripe between the two layers of soft, fluffy sponge. It was the best thing she'd eaten in days - weeks even - and she was going to make every bite count, catching the last of the crumbs with her fork and savouring that final taste.

Everyone was staring at her when she finally remembered the world beyond the edge of her plate.

"Umi?" Hikaru stared at her with disbelieving eyes.

The startled confusion of what she'd just done seeped slowly deeper under Umi's skin as she stared down at the empty plate. That hadn't been chocolate or Clef's confection that had tasted spiced and tangy, like a fluffy pastry with fruit sauce. It has been a large slice of nothing but sugary birthday cake, and she'd eaten the _entire thing_.

Setting the plate aside, as if that might somehow make what she'd done less confusing, Umi turned to Clef. "I just - What?"

"How many times do I have to tell you to take your fatigue seriously," Clef said, not quite looking at her. His voice was irritated and loud enough everyone else must be able to hear him just as clearly as Umi. "A slice of cake isn't going to replace your need to rest."

She stared at the plate. "But it would be so much _quicker_ ," she muttered, and at least one person laughed before the other drifted back into conversation.

Clef busied himself pouring a cup of tea. Umi picked up her own drink and hoped Clef wasn't going to be too stubborn about her need to 'rest'. She'd rather planned on doing something more strenuous at some point this afternoon. Sure, she was a little tired, but she'd been drained for weeks, so that wasn't new. As loathe as she was to admit it, travelling with the others had helped, even if she did still make a stop by Clef's rooms for more of that headache tea before the picnic.

But Clef was in an almost tangible mood by the time they walked back into the central tower after the picnic, his face tight and the air around him just a fraction heavy. Umi headed off with him without bothering with much of an excuse. He didn't send her away, but he didn't seem that welcoming either. Once they were through the archway and more-or-less alone, Umi spun about the confront him. "Why are you being so weird about a slice of cake?"

Grabbing her hand, Clef pulled her into an alcove a few paces down the corridor. He flicked his free hand, and Umi felt the magic settle around them like a heavy blanket, which meant no one else was about to hear what he had to say. "Because it isn't _normal_ ," he said, "Not for you."

Umi shook her hand free. "I'm staying the night next weekend, okay. I'll feel better after that."

"Magic fatigue can make someone crave high energy foods, but -" Clef shook his head. "Umi, this didn't start when you wiped yourself out last month."

"Yeah, it did."

"No, it didn't. Getz still complains about you throwing biscuits at him."

"I didn't throw it; I dropped it," Umi argued, and when Clef opened his mouth to protest, Umi waved him off. "What else could it be?"

Clef's eyes dropped down to her stomach - no, _lower_ , and a shiver ran down Umi's spine.

"No, she snapped. "Not that again. Clef, it's _literally_ impossible."

Clef caught her hand again. "Come with me to the Healers to be sure."

"No!" Umi glared at him. "I'm not wasting people's time because you're paranoid, okay? I felt better today because I had help with the spell - It's fatigue!"

"Umi, even if you're not pregnant, I'm still concerned about how drained you are. Please, just come with me -"

" _No_." Umi yanked her hand out of his and took a few steps back. The silencing spell raised goosebumps on her skin as she walked back out of it.

"Can't you be reasonable," Clef complained, following her out. "If we just -"

"I said _no_. I'm not going, and you can't make me." Umi snapped. She was fine, just worn out - and she lived somewhere _without magic_ ; it made perfect sense she'd still be feeling it. She moved the entire ocean!

An arm wrapped around Umi from behind, as Caldina's voice rang beside her ear. "She said she doesn't want to. If someone says no, they get to mean no." She drew Umi back protectively, and Umi was irritated enough to appreciate the frustration on Clef's face.

"You know what - _fine_. Be that way." Clef shook his head and walked past them.

Umi let out a heavy sigh as she turned to watch him disappear through the archway. "I don't know why he's being so persistent about this," she muttered.

Caldina let her go. "What does that sleazy old geezer want you to do?" She turned Umi to face her. "Does he think he can drag you off into a corner anytime he wants to, just because you slept with him once or twice?"

Staring at Caldina, Umi shook her head. "It's not like that at all."

Caldina put her hands on her hips and Umi a _look_. "Are you still sleeping with him?"

"That's none of your business."

"Girlie, someone in his position is nothing but trouble."

Umi rolled her eyes and walked away. She wasn't about to start an argument with Caldina when she was already annoyed. Turning that on Caldina would only end in a shouting match. She was pissed off with Clef, but she was still tempted to challenge Caldina to a duel for his honour - which probably wasn't even a thing here.

"Hey!" Caldina grabbed her hand and Umi ripped free with an aggravated growl. "Don't you be grumbling at me about that old pervert. It's not my fault you got yourself tangled up with him when your brain got stuck _down there_."

"Would you shut up about that!" Umi spat. "I don't need your advice. He's just being a prat today." She stomped off after Clef. Whether she wanted to shout at him or fuck him, she was still undecided, but whichever it was - probably both - she didn't get to do either, because Caldina caught her before she got much further than the archway of the spiral.

"Shout all you want, you still need to come with me. Fuu leaves in an hour, and she's threatening to not be back until Festival." Caldina said. "You're not getting out of preparations this year."

"What, I get to say no unless you're the one telling me what to do?" Umi snorted.

"We aren't sleeping together or in a relationship, and also, I'm _right_ ," Caldina shot right back.

"It's not like you actually need me to pick out cloth. I don't see why we need new dresses again. Don't we have enough stuff from the last few years?"

"New clothes for a new year." Caldina took her hand again and pulled her toward the spiral. "I'm not letting any of you three look unloved."

Umi thought of the wardrobe of dresses at Clef's house, and the irritation faded under a wave of laughter she suppressed before she had to explain herself.

This time, she let herself be led away.

.*.*.*.

Clef stormed up to his rooms, needing a few minutes to compose himself before anyone wanted him in an official capacity.

He didn't know why he kept trying to argue reason or sense with Umi. He might as well slam his head into the castle wall for all the good that would do - Umi did what she cursed well pleased, and nothing or nobody could stop her once she'd set her mind to something. Just why that something had to be a complete disregard of her questionable health and an utter refusal to be seen by any of the healers, Clef had no idea. He wasn't sure he _wanted_ to know why she thought it was better to ignore him about this.

Practically slamming open his door, Clef stomped two steps into the room and stopped dead.

Sitting out on the kitchenette counter was the tin of headache tea, and beside it, a teapot and cup. His stomach tightened. That was three weeks in a row. She hadn't even travelled alone this time, so the spell shouldn't have been as strong. Yet, she still -

"Reckless girl," Clef fumed as he slammed the tin back into the cupboard. "Headstrong and _infuriating_ girl." He thumped the teapot and cup into the sink so hard he heard one of them crack. Taking a deep breath he braced himself on the counter and let it out slowly. This wasn't helping anything.

.*.*.*.

The last time they'd been out shopping with Caldina - over the summer holiday - it had been out to the closest town. This was the first time Umi had been to the commercial wing of the Castle, instead, where the inhabitants had set up their own shopping area. It felt like some marketplace crossed with a shopping mall; a central garden room held a large fruit tree that reached up past three levels of assorted shops, some run by individuals, others by several Guilds for apprentices practicing selling their wares or skills and the masters keeping their hand in.

Hikaru and Fuu did less gawking than Umi. Then, they'd been in here last year, when it was newer. "Are all the shops full now?" Fuu asked.

Caldina nodded. She led them through the garden and up the ramp to the next level before swinging around to the other side and the large warehouse-like shop which sat over the main entrance. It stretched up to the next floor, a staircase in the shop itself connecting the two levels.

There were stacks and shelves bowing under bolts of fabric of every possible description. Umi recognised a couple as the ones Clef had explained to her. There was a large display of the beautiful iridescent indigos and pinks that featured in her wardrobes at Clef's house; she stopped to touch a soft pink with a similar woven pattern to the dress she'd worn to the ball.

"Oh, that's pretty," Hikaru exclaimed.

"You are most certainly _not_ having any of that," Caldina said, appearing beside them.

Umi didn't let go. "But I like it?"

"And I would be happy to tell you that's a mark of good taste if you weren't infatuated with the old man whose lands grow the stuff that dyes it. I doubt _you_ like it for the quality of the fabric."

"So, why can't I have it?" Umi unfolded the display bolt's edge to find the label, which had a long string of Cephiran numbers that didn't mean anything to her.

"Let's just say that if I use all the money I have for the three of you, I could possibly get enough for a headband."

"Huh…" Umi stared. She had an entire dress of that. More than one. "So a couple of dresses would cost…"

"A _couple_?"

Turning away from Caldina to ignore the expression on her face, Umi ran her hands over the silken fabric one more time before she let herself be led to a selection of fabrics that was more in keeping with their budget. "I don't know why I need to be here anyway," Umi complained. "I already _have_ a new dress I could wear."

"You are not wearing anything that man gave you to greet the new year."

"Oh, come on!"

"No! People _pay attention_ at Festival. You really want them thinking he's bought you for the year?"

Hikaru bounced further into the shop and found something else in the same colour. "Hey, Umi! What about this?"

The fabric wasn't nearly as fine as the first, but it was still pretty, with a gentle pearlescent sheen when it caught the light. It was soft to the touch, sliding through Umi's fingers.

"What's wrong with _blue_? You like blue!" Caldina asked. "Fuu, talk some sense into your friend before she causes a scandal!"

At the sound of her name, Fuu reappeared from behind another tall stack of fabric and walked over to where the others were. "Oh! That is pretty," she said, reaching out to touch the cloth herself.

"See. Fuu likes it too." Umi felt smug. "It's a more acceptable price, isn't it?"

"What part of wearing that colour will look like he _bought you_ are you failing to comprehend?"

"What, people think Clef's sleeping with _everyone_ wearing cloth dyed in Mazda?" Umi raised an eyebrow.

Caldina glared back. "No, just the ones he publicly ended his celibacy with."

"We didn't do _that_ publically! Anyway, if it's going to look like he paid me, then let me wear one of my other dresses. At least then they'd know how much my company's worth," Umi grinned. She doubted he'd bought anything 'reasonably priced', given he'd gotten himself cut off.

Fuu snickered and Hikaru stifled her own giggle as Caldina hissed in frustration.

" _Blue!_ What exactly is wrong with blue? Blue looks good on you."

"Why do you always want to put me in blue? Why can't I wear green or grey, if we're going for the element theme?" Umi asked. "Fuu looks good in blue. Why can't she be the one in blue this time? The sky's blue too, so that means air can be blue, right?"

"There is a very nice blue overlay I was looking at over there." Fuu pointed back behind the stack she'd been lurking behind. "It would look well layered over part of my dress from last year."

"It needs to be _entirely_ new," Caldina flailed he hands with an exasperated sigh.

"If I wore something I already have," Umi started again. Really, she had enough dresses. Caldina didn't need to spend anything on her. "It would give Hikaru and Fuu more -"

"You _are not_ wearing a stitch that man gave you," Caldina snapped, cutting Umi off. "You will start this year properly, so help me." She turned to Fuu. "Show me this overlay, then."

The two of them disappeared around the pile of fabric and Hikaru turned to Umi. "I forgot to ask. What did Clef think of his cake?"

Umi huffed. "He's being all paranoid about me feeling under the weather. We didn't even talk about the cake - not _his_ cake, anyway."

Hikaru snorted back a laugh. "Does that mean you didn't ask him about meeting your parents?"

"No. I'll do it later," Umi sighed. "Sometimes I don't know why I even like him."

The solemness of Hikaru's nod of understanding was undermined by barely concealed laughter as she pat Umi reassuringly on the shoulder.

.*.*.*.

To say Clef's mind wasn't on his work that afternoon would have been a bit of an understatement. While he may have been physically present for the committee meeting to finalise the remaining members of Honda's Circle, he wasn't paying much attention to the debate. And a debate it was; Murano had something to say about nearly everyone on the lists put forward by the remaining four guilds.

Clef paid him little mind and absently shuffled through his papers. His eyes skimmed over the words, but he really wasn't taking anything in. No matter how he tried to bring himself back to what he should be doing, he just kept thinking about Umi.

He was allowed to be concerned about her. She was first and foremost his friend.

"But she's _pregnant_!" Murano's shrill complaint rang through the room, startling Clef back to the present.

"What?" Clef snapped his head up.

"I forget you don't pay attention to gossip." Dokker huffed out a laugh beside him and leaned over to murmur. "Apparently Presea's preferred smith, Jetta, is pregnant, and Murano seems to think that matters for some reason." He propped his chin on his hands and watched Murano's wild gestures with amusement.

"You should concern yourself less with idle gossip and focus on the task at hand," Sylphy, Nissan's Warden, replied testily. "I would like to get this Circle sorted so I can stop being subjected to so many of your pointless diatribes."

"Jetta's pregnancy _is_ part of the task at hand," Murano said.

"No, it is not," Sylphy snarled. "That fact has absolutely no bearing on her ability to act as Chief Smith of Honda."

Murano shook his handful of papers at her. "It does if the cursed province falls into the sea once and for all."

"If the rest of the Circle can't hold it steady when one of their members is indisposed, then they were not good appointments," Cervo, the head of the eastern sea spirits, said calmly. "Toyota came through unscathed during it's Warden's pregnancy, and the birth this past month. A smith would cause even less trouble, I imagine."

"It would cause all sorts of trouble for a region attached to a ward with an absentee Warden." Murano shot Clef a hateful look.

"An entire Circle could be pregnant at once without the slightest hint of instability!" Sylphy snapped. "Do we need to find a replacement for you should you catch a mild virus? A fever would, by your logic, be far more unstable."

"Whether or not someone is growing a new person in their womb is not a reason for disqualification. From the information we have been given, Jetta is perfectly capable of holding the position of Chief Smith," Auris said, with an air of annoyance. "If you are so inclined to see procreation as a failing, perhaps it is time we reassess your suitability for the role of Warden for Arnage. I cannot imagine what you would say to a student who wished to keep up their studies while also waiting on a child."

"Perhaps the Guru's post as Warden of Mazda should also be put under equal scrutiny," Murano said, slapping his hand down on the table, and a mutter of 'Here we go again' came from the far side of the room. "Anyone who manages to get not one, but _three_ nieces appointed to their Circle has far too much influence over their region."

"We are already aware of Guru Clef's relationship to his Seneschal and Chief Priest - and Chief Judge, for that matter." Avenir looked beyond bored. "The committee was aware when they appointed them. It is neither new nor _relevant_ information."

"And I don't think the Guru is currently pregnant," Dokker added, with a grin.

"That _would_ be rather fast," someone down the room muttered, sounding amused. Clef tried not to flinch.

"If you have complaints about Eiru Kalos's appointment," Torneo said, folding his arms in front of him. "You may speak to me about it, as _I_ am the one who assigned her to Mazda."

"Does anyone else have any arguments against Jetta's appointment that are actually relevant?" Presea said, looking around at the rest of them. Many shook their heads. "Then I would like to propose a vote, so we can move on."

Clef raised his hand to be counted in approval, and took a deep breath, sinking back in his seat. That left… another three appointments to go today. If they were all likely to take this long, there went his chance of seeing Umi again before she left. Which might be for the best, if they were just going to argue today, but he didn't like it.

.*.*.*.

After Umi finally escaped from Caldina, she went in search of Clef. She tried his rooms first, in the vain hope that he might be waiting for her, but found them empty.

Setting out at a jog, she headed for his office ten floors down. Taking the spiral down at a run was enough to make anyone dizzy, and would probably explain why she was unsteady enough on her feet that, when she slammed head-long into Ascot, she tumbled over straight onto her backside with a yelp.

"Are you alright?" Everything that had been in Ascot's arms was littered about the floor, but he dropped down beside her and helped her up without paying any attention to that. His face was the picture of worry. "Do you - should you go to the Healers?"

"For a bruise on my butt?" Umi asked, rubbing her hip. "No, I'll be fine. I went down on the rounder bit, not the bone - that _would_ hurt. I should have looked where I was going, sorry. I'm trying to find Clef. You don't know where he is, do you?"

"Master Clef has meetings which will probably run until dinner."

"Oh." Umi deflated.

"Um… It's not my place to ask…" Ascot rubbed the back of his neck. "But… Is everything … okay? You know, between you two?"

"Yeah, of course. We had an argument and I kinda want to yell at him some more, but that's normal for us." Umi blinked at him, then she pulled a face. "Don't tell me that Caldina's finally gotten to you. You shouldn't listen to her nonsense!" She tapped him on the nose with a finger. "Clef isn't the creepy old pervert she makes him out to be."

"I know," Ascot said, his voice even softer as he looked down at the ground.

Umi followed his gaze to all the papers scattered about the floor around them. "Shit! I'm sorry." She dropped down and started gathering things up. "I really should know better than to run in the corridors. At least not going down."

"It's fine," Ascot said kneeling beside her and neatly piling papers into his lap. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Of course," Umi said. "It's just a little bump, I'm fine. I do worse in fencing practice most weeks."

"You're still fencing?" Ascot asked, pausing to look at her. "Didn't you - I thought you said you had stopped?"

"I'm not competing, I just drop in sometimes. Hikaru's going to get far too much ahead of me if I drop it completely. I'm not letting her become a magic swordsperson before me." Picking up a few more papers, Umi paused staring at the handwriting on the note in her hand. She knew that messy scrawl. "When did you start helping Clef?"

"Er… recently?"

"Good. He works too hard."

"Yeah." Ascot blushed. "It just seemed like he could use some help, and there's so much he's going to need to be doing soon…"

"More than he'll admit, I'm sure." Umi smiled at him, passing over the papers and letting her hand linger over his. "Thank you, Ascot."

Ducking his head as his cheeks flared an even brighter red, Ascot nodded. "I should -"

"Yes. Sorry, go finish what you were doing." Umi waved him off as she climbed to her feet, brushing off her skirt. She continued on to Clef's office at a more sedate pace, as Ascot disappeared up the spiral in the other direction

Walking into Clef's empty office, his wards brushing over her skin, Umi was struck by a wave of disappointment. She'd been looking forward to seeing him all week. Now she wasn't going to see him properly until _next_ week. All because she'd been annoyed.

Yes, she was a little off, but she was _fine_ , just a little tired, and a bit more hungry than usual. Maybe the whole cake thing was a bit strange, but it made sense. It would pass, once she was able to stay in Cephiro longer than a few hours at a time. Another long weekend would probably do it. A nap might help too.

Now she couldn't even ask him if he was submitting the next bill this week. She couldn't ask him _anything_.

Her eyes burned as she dropped into her favourite seat and stared across the piles of paper on Clef's desk at his empty chair. She'd missed out on spending time with him because she was _annoyed_ with him. Like that was a new thing. They'd barely even spoken.

It was an upsetting thought, but it shouldn't have been enough for her to be _crying_ about it. She'd gone months without seeing him last year! This was just a week - six days, even. And next time, she'd be spending the night.

But she missed him _now_.

Wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve, Umi reached into her pocket for her handkerchief. This was so silly, and yet she was struggling to stop the flood of tears. They kept on trickling over her cheeks.

Her handkerchief was thoroughly and unpleasantly damp when she finally shoved it back in her pocket and picked up a pen off the desk. At the very least, she could leave him an apology - even if he couldn't read it. It took a bit of rooting about to find a blank sheet of paper.

> _I'm sorry_

Umi tapped the pen lightly on the edge of the paper, leaving a blotch of ink under the nib. Tears were welling back up in her eyes. She angrily blinked them away and finished writing in a rush.

> _I'm sorry.  
>  You're still a prat, but I miss you.  
>  ~Umi_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **In the next chapter:** In which Clef confronts Umi about her health... again.
> 
> Also, natto is awful, tights are terrible, and - as always - Umi is more powerful than she realises. 
> 
>  
> 
>  **Note:** I hope you enjoyed reading this addition. All feedback is loved and appreciated.


	14. In which Clef again confronts Umi about her health

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan was to have this chapter ready to post last weekend after Down and I got back from Wales, but we ended up using a lot of our free time finishing a cross stitch sampler that will be a gift for Down's parents' ruby wedding anniversary. 
> 
> During our stint away from the internet for nearly two weeks, Down has also possibly finished the next chapter of Protecting You. (It won't be posted until the following chapter is also completed so not to leave us hanging on a cliffhanger for months on end.)
> 
> This chapter did start life as the second half of chapter 13, so the lingering question is not actually answered in this one.

To say that Clef's week got off to a bad start was an understatement. The argument with Umi meant he spent nearly no time with her and led to enduring a conversation with Ferio that same night when he had the nerve to sweep into Clef's office, demanding to know what his intentions toward Umi were

"I should have thought it was _obvious_. That's what you've been telling me for the past few weeks, isn't it? 'Everyone knows' what I feel for her, I'm blatantly breaking the law, someone will call me up for treason any moment -" He cut himself off, closing his eyes and rubbing his face. "Let me guess. Caldina?"

"Just - please tell me you're not coercing Umi into continuing things," Ferio said, with a sigh. "Caldina's not the only one who saw you arguing this afternoon."

" _Of course not!_ " Clef stared at him. "It's not like the arguing is anything new."

Ferio looked him in the eyes. "It is when it looks like you're trying to drag her away and she's arguing with that."

"Well, that's true, but -" 

" _What?_ " Ferio dropped into the chair opposite Clef like his legs had been cut from under him.

"To the _Healers_ , not my bedroom." Clef snapped. 

Ferio blinked then reached for Clef's cup of tea and drained it ignoring Clef's protest. "I know she's been a bit fatigued from that little stunt with Honda, but - Is something worse wrong with her?"

"I don't know." Clef put his head in his hands. "And she refuses find out."

With a sigh, Ferio got up and went to find the kettle hidden among the detritus on the sideboard. "What's the strongest tea you've got in here?"

"The tin with the griffin on it," Clef answered and tried to just breathe.

.*.*.*.

Monday morning at breakfast, Umi's stomach decided it was high time she understood that natto was literally the _worst thing ever_. She braced herself firmly against the doorframe while she gagged miserably over the smell of her father's favourite breakfast dish. Seven years abroad, in three different countries, and he still wanted a dish of fermented soybeans with breakfast whenever appropriate.

"How can you eat that stuff?" Umi wailed. She shot past him to the other end of the room, covering her nose and mouth.

"It's tasty," Papa said with a grin.

"It's _vile!_ " Umi moved her dishes down the table as far as she could get from it. Thankfully, her breakfast was nicer than his. Not that she managed to eat very much of it.

.*.*.*.

Other than the occasional bouts of nausea when her stomach acted up, or the annoying recurring headache, the rest of the week passed ordinarily enough. Nao and Moe drafted a play that seemed to suit everyone in the class, though Umi declared that the sword fight didn't seem dramatic enough, which gained her a few eye rolls and an eraser flung at her head - she deflected it with her notebook before sticking her tongue out at the perpetrator, The play was agreed, and they got down to learning their parts. No one had too many lines, as they were all facing too much schoolwork, so most of Umi's time was spent working on the choreography of the fight with Rika, which was fun.

Still, by midweek, any extra sleep she'd managed at the weekend seemed to be wearing off, and she ended up having a nap after school by Wednesday. Even then, she went back to bed shortly after dinner and slept the whole night through.

On top of that, the dreams she was having were getting more vivid and more… unusual. They started out pretty normal, like the dreams she'd been having since Clef - well, since he looked like he did now. She'd been dreaming about what she'd like to do with him for nearly a year, so that wasn't too strange, but some of the things she dreamt of them doing were. (She did kind of want to actually try tying him up with the sheets at some point, but she wasn't going to stop in the middle of things to have tea with Caldina!) It was dreaming about other people who _weren't him_ that really confused her.

Granted, the girl at the convenience store near her school was kind of hot, and Umi was seeing her more than usual since she'd been stopping in for a snack after school a lot the past few weeks, but that didn't mean she wanted to make out with her on the shop counter. But that wasn't the one that had her most confused.

No, that was the one with _Ferio_.

It had started ordinarily enough with Umi sat at a table in the dining hall with Clef across from her, and their friends around them. She'd gotten into an argument with Ferio about something - not that the topic really mattered, and it was a dream, so the topic never actually came up.

Somehow, they'd ended up under the table, with Umi telling him what to do - because he wasn't doing it right - as they had vigorous sex exactly the way she wanted it, which apparently meant she won the argument somehow?

She woke up sweaty, shuddering, and bewildered, aching and wet between her legs.

.*.*.*.

Clef knew he was terrible to be around the rest of week. He couldn't shake the all-encompassing sense of urgency that was eating away at him any time he spent doing his _job_ rather than working on the next blasted repeal bill, trying to work out the quickest possible way to get the two remaining repeals heard - and _agreed_ \- by the Council.

It wasn't helped by the fact that there was absolutely no space on the agenda for the coming Council meeting. There were so many scheduled items that there would be no time left for a new member bill to be introduced from the floor. He doubted they'd finish the regular items before dark, and then Opel's review of the current split between the spirit areas was up, and he couldn't see that debate happening without a great deal of shouting.

If he didn't get this one through by the end of the next quarter, Umi would have to move into her own rooms. They would simply have to keep up the pretence of their indifference until it was through. 

But all of the pretence in the world would be for nothing if they had started a child.

You could downplay a relationship, and financial records could be buried, but a baby - Nothing would say 'look at the treason I'm committing' like caring for a child with the partner he wasn't legally allowed to have.

The whole thing had him pacing his study floor as he tried to regain some sense of focus. It wouldn't do to ignore his actual job worrying over something that might not happen, but that didn't keep him from being so snappish that even his own household was avoiding him by midweek.

He was in the new library late one afternoon with a stack of books and scrolls he'd pulled out of the legal section when they were moving things across from the now - again a - ballroom when Aveo stomped in. 

"When you put your name down to cook dinner, people expect you to actually do it," she said.

Clef looked up from the lawbook in front of him to the timepiece on the shelf before sheepishly getting to his feet. "I'm sorry. I'll go now."

"Don't bother. Getz and Aygo are doing it." Aveo said impatiently and sat down in the chair opposite him. "Under protest on Aygo's part, which I'm sure we'll hear about at dinner. Still, Uncle-mine, you know perfectly well that overdoing things will get you into trouble."

"I'm not overdoing things," he argued, dropping back into his chair. He knew he was in trouble when that particular form of address came out.

"You're currently working two jobs that can easily overwhelm most people individually. And now you're researching several millennia's worth of legal history on top of them." Aveo crossed her arms on the edge of the table and looked at him seriously. "You don't have to keep doing this on your own. You _can't_ keep doing this on your own."

"You do more than half of the work of Warden yourself," he pointed out, but just got stared at until he looked away, holding up the sheaf of papers to his right. "I know I need help. Tell Brisa thank you for the notes."

"Tell her yourself. You need to stop avoiding people." Aveo sighed. "What happened? You've been more stroppy than usual for most of the past fortnight."

Clef bristled. "It's nothing."

"Did something happen with Umi? Is that cake in the kitchen some sort of an apology you aren't accepting?"

He'd not been able to even look at the chocolate cake without thinking about Umi eating the other one. So the box sat untouched on the corner of the kitchen worktable with a preservation spell thrown over it, waiting for him to stop flinching when he saw it. The household had been asking him about it for days, but he hadn't been answering.

"She's still the same person she was before you slept together, so you're bound to have the same sorts of disagreements."

"I know that!" Clef snapped. 

"And yet you haven't mentioned her in two weeks, and you're leaving that pretty little cake to fester on the table rather than letting someone enjoy it?"

Clef rubbed his hands over his face. "It's payment for sexual favours, if you really must know."

Aveo pursed her lips. He had the deepest suspicion she was fighting back a laugh. "Umi's paying you?"

"I pointed out that I'm still not allowed to be in a relationship with her." He shook his head. "It was her idea, and I just -" he sighed. "I just let her do what she wanted." Clef put his head in his hands. He always ended up letting Umi do whatever she wanted.

.*.*.*.

Clef had been expecting Umi to turn up at the end of the week, so he wasn't so much surprised when she thumped into his office as he was startled by the _loud_ intrusion. He recoiled from the swinging door and smudged the ink across the paper he was writing on.

"Hikaru is absolutely terrible," Umi complained, dropping her school bag and a bright overnight bag on the floor as she slumped into her usual chair. She looked exhausted - positively grey.

"What did she do?" Clef asked, itching to go round his desk and drag her to a bed and glare at her until she _slept_ , no matter the cause of her exhaustion.

"She dragged me to this stupid launch event, so she could get a second keychain mascot thing. We stood there for _hours_. My feet are killing me, and I don't even get to keep the blasted thing. Not that I want to - I prefer dragons to cutesy mascots - but I have absolutely nothing to show for my wasted time."

"You could have said no," he pointed out.

"No, I couldn't have. I promised I'd go weeks ago. I don't - I keep my promises." Umi looked at him like he was a fool and then rolled her eyes and leaned forward resting her chin on crossed arms on the edge of his desk. "There were so many people, and it was _so loud_. Please tell me you have something for my headache down here, because I really don't want to move."

Clef nodded and rose to his feet to put his little kettle on. His hand was shaking when he picked up the tin of headache tea and glanced over at Umi curled up in the chair. He shook his head sharply to chase the glimmer of that thought away. There was no point starting that argument again when Umi would just storm out and endure the headache. And what if he _was_ just 'jumping to conclusions'? This could be a simple headache, even if she had complained of it for weeks now. So many of her other symptoms fit magic fatigue.

"I think I'll be going to sleep right after dinner," Umi said with a yawn. "I'm completely wiped out."

"You could go to bed now if you're that tired." He handed her a cup of tea. "Have a nap and get food later? Or I could fetch something for you?"

"I'm too hungry to skip dinner. And it's easier to just go down, anyway." Umi curled around the cup and closed her eyes, breathing in the steam, and the tension in her expression eased slightly. "But before I do that, I _need_ to get out of these awful tights. They're so uncomfortable. I'm sure I've shrunk them again."

She took a sip of tea before wincing - it was still steaming hot. With a look of intense concentration, she stared at her cup and a soft light of magic drifted between her fingers. When she brought the cup up to her lips a second time, she drank deeply.

Clef sat back down and picked his pen back up, but he didn't even bother opening the lid, as he just sat there watching her drink. Every sip bringing a little more colour to her face. She really should be seen by a healer. If she kept putting it off much longer, he may just point Muira at her. Which could prove interesting, in a number of ways - he knew from extensive experience the Master Healer was not easily avoided.

When Umi looked up, Clef hastily unscrewed the cap of his pen and went back to poking the report in front of him.

Setting her cup down a few minutes later, Umi pushed herself out of her chair. "I'm going to go get out of these blasted tights." She picked up her bags. "I'd ask if you wanted to come up and help, but I - and I can't believe I'm saying this - I just don't have the energy today."

Clef watched the closed door a long time, ink drying on the nib of his pen.

.*.*.*.

Once she'd rid herself of the tights and shed her jacket and tie, Umi was half-tempted to take Clef's suggestion and just go straight to bed, but she was so hungry she was starting to feel ill. The need for food was the only thing keeping her up, so she went off to find Hikaru and head down to dinner.

The aroma of food carried down the corridor from the dining hall, meeting them as they stepped through the archway from the spiral and her stomach had done a very annoyed flip-flop. Umi paused, pressing her hand to her middle. She took a few slow measured breaths and walked on, but the warm smell of cooked cheese-fruit slammed into her full force when Hikaru pulled the door open.

Umi covered her mouth as she gagged.

Both hands pressed to mouth, she dashed back down the corridor and around the corner to the toilets, barely making it into the first cubicle before her stomach heaved. When she was finished, Umi sank down on the floor, tears trickling down her face, shaking.

A few minutes later someone knocked on the open cubicle door and asked, "Are you alright? Should I fetch someone for you - a healer, perhaps?" The deep tone didn't surprise her - Umi had gotten used to Cephiro's public toilets not being segregated by gender - but the voice itself was strangely familiar.

Umi let out a sob instead of an answer. She was so hungry her stomach ached, but the mere thought of going back to the dining hall was more than she could handle and had her pressing the heel of her hand to her mouth as she leaned back against the wall.

There was another knock on the door as it opened to reveal Ouran, of all people, standing there looking down at her with concern. " _Oh_ ," he said, the word coming out more like a startled whisper. "Should I get the Guru?"

" _No_ ," Umi shook her head. Clef was the last person she wanted to see.

There was a soft flutter of robes and the air around them trembled a moment before Ouran turned on the tap of the little sink in the corner of her cubicle. Umi looked up to see him filling a cup with water. He crouched down as he offered it to her. "Is there anything I can do for you, my dear?"

Taking the cup with shaking hands, Umi choked back another soft sob with a shuddered breath. "No. Thank you. I'm fine." Whether she was assuring him or herself, she couldn't be sure.

"You certainly don't seem fine," he said, holding out a handkerchief.

Umi traded him the half-empty cup for it, pressing the cool cloth to her face, and Ouran emptied the rest of the water into the sink before disappearing the cup. He stayed with her, a calm - almost reassuring - presence, for what felt like an hour, but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, until Hikaru called out for her from the main doorway. 

"Umi?"

"Our Lady Knight is not particularly well this evening," Ouran answer for her, leaning out and waving Hikaru over before turning to help Umi to her feet. "You should get some rest, my dear," he said before excusing himself with a formal bow, waving off her belated attempt to hand the handkerchief back.

Hikaru stepped in after he left, pressing a hand to Umi's forehead. "Are you ill?"

"I'm - It's just -" Umi pushed her away, but she didn't know what to even say. She didn't even know if she _was_ ill, or if - no, she wasn't going to think about that. "I think I'll just skip dinner and go to bed."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Hikaru asked, worry creasing her forehead.

"No." Umi shook her head. "Go eat. I'll be fine."

Hikaru followed her out of the toilets and down to the opening to the spiral, asking once more if Umi was sure she was okay on her own. Umi shooed her back to the main dining hall and headed upstairs.

Pausing on Clef's floor, Umi stood in the archway staring down the corridor toward his door. It was closer than her room, and she'd only have one person hovering over her if she stayed the night with him. She thought of about a half dozen excuses, so she wouldn't have to admit the idea of going to sleep in Clef's bed seemed nicer than going all the way up to her own room. 

No matter what the reason was, she left her boots just inside the door and trudged into the bedroom, flopping onto the bed.

.*.*.*.

Clef was worried when Hikaru arrived at the table for dinner without Umi in tow. Especially when it hadn't been too long before that Umi had said she'd go find Hikaru.

"She was right behind me," Hikaru said, with a startled look back at the doors. "I'll go check on her."

The knot in Clef's stomach tightened, and it took everything not to jump up from the table to find her himself. He sat staring at the door, hoping she'd appear any moment, but over a half-dozen people walked through that door while he watched and none of them were Umi.

"You alright?" Ferio asked.

"Fine," Clef said, absently. "I'm fine."

He poked at his food, trying to force himself to eat a little of it. He was beginning to lose weight with all his fretting. Aveo had already taken to following him about the house with trays of snacks, trying to get him to at least eat something, but eating was difficult when his stomach was so anxiously tight.

A shadow fell over his plate a short while later, and he turned to find Ouran standing over him. "The young lady is feeling a little under the weather this evening," Ouran said, voice low enough no one should overhear.

Clef's grip tightened on his fork as if that would help him hold himself steady. He swallowed. "Thank you." She must have been very unwell if Ouran had come to tell him.

Ouran bowed gracefully and walked away. Clef stared after him for a long moment before snapping his attention back to the main door, trying to decide how long he should wait before going to find Umi. Hikaru returned a few moments later, her pace sedate with none of the usual bounce. She glanced behind herself once or twice like she was second-guessing her return.

"Umi's gone to bed," she said, sitting down at the table. "She's not feeling well."

Murmurs went around their bit of the table. One or two of their friends asked if Clef thought it was related to her magic fatigue, but Clef couldn't bring himself to answer. 

Pushing himself up and away from the table gracelessly, Clef abandoned subtlety. She needed to see a healer now. He'd strode through the dining hall and into the main corridor before he realised he ought to take her something to eat. If she _was_ fatigued, she shouldn't be missing meals. Only, if she had been sick, it would need to be something bland and inoffensive.

A brief visit to the main kitchens rewarded him with a small plate of the most basic of crispbreads. He carried them slowly up, round and round the central spiral ramp, wondering just what he was going to say to her that wouldn't start yet another argument. 

Why wouldn't she just go to the healers when he asked? Did _everything_ have to be a battle of wills with her?

By the time he reached his own floor, Clef decided he ought to bring her something to drink. The girls didn't have a tea service in their room, and the crispbreads would make a better peace offering if they were accompanied by a drink which could help settle her stomach.

Walking into his evening-dark suite, he nearly tripped over Umi's boots. 

Clef stared at them, then at the empty lounge, before crossing through it to knock quietly on the closed bedroom door.

No one answered.

He eased the door open, calling a soft light to his hand - just enough that he could see Umi curled up on what she'd declared her side of the bed. She was still dressed on top of the covers, face pressed into the pillows, and her arm flung up over it.

"Umi?" he said, keeping his voice quiet.

She didn't answer - asleep, already.

Trying not to disturb her, he set the plate down on the bedside table and went back out into the living room to fetch the soft blanket from the settee. He didn't want to wake her just to get her under the covers. If she was already asleep, she should stay that way. She needed the rest.

A few minutes later a mug of soothing tea joined the plate, with two charms laid upon it - one to keep it warm until she woke and another to let him know when she did.

Clef forced himself to sit down and drink his own cup of tea, a calming blend. After the first cup, he felt a little less fidgety, but he couldn't expect a simple cup of tea to stop him worrying. How badly he wanted to be wrong. If this was only his paranoid imagining triggered by some deep-seated guilt about breaching the law, he would be more than happy. But he already knew how little he actually respected the laws that remained. 

No, if it was true, his biggest fear was how it would affect Umi.

Emptying the last dregs from the teapot into his cup and downing it in one go, Clef pushed himself up and went to have a bath. Maybe the combination of the tea and a hot soak would relax him enough he might actually sleep, rather than lie beside Umi fretting for hours - which would no doubt precipitate him losing his temper as soon as she refused to go to the Healers, and then they would argue and she _definitely_ wouldn't go.

He scrubbed until he was pink all over and his scalp tingled from too much shampooing. After a final rinse, he climbed into the bath and leaned back against the side as he sank into the water.

If it _had_ happened and she chose to go forward with it, there was nothing to be done but welcome the child into the world. But he shied away from that thought, because there was a tiny sharp corner of his chest which felt - _hopeful_ that there _would_ be a child, even though - even though it could ruin all Umi's plans.

His too, he supposed, but - well, he wouldn't be heartbroken not to be Guru anymore.

If only it wasn't treason, a word somewhat harder to shake off than 'illegal'...

But he could be entirely wrong. It wasn't as if he knew a great deal about pregnancy. He'd never been close to anyone while they went through it. Navara didn't count, she lived halfway across the country and they only ever saw each other in Council or Guild meetings. They certainly weren't close enough to discuss anything so personal. Aveo had been on the other side of the country when she'd had Kalos a few centuries ago - and Clef had been a little distracted by the early hints of the Emeraude and Zagato implosion when Elysion was born.

With a sigh, Clef shut his eyes and tried to focus on the heat of the water on his skin and the scent of the relaxing herbs he'd dumped in the water with the bath salts.

He was nearly drifting off when the charm on the tea pulled his attention, letting him know Umi was awake. Blinking Clef rolled his shoulders and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she would be more receptive to the suggestion after today?

The door to the toilet clicked shut, and he waited, trying to keep hold of the precarious calm he'd almost reached as he heard the door to the next room open and the tap go on.

The running water and the shut door between them meant he almost didn't hear when she gagged.

Clef flailed out of the water and dashed into the next room to find Umi bent over in front of the sink, one hand holding her toothbrush and the other pressed to her mouth. She was taking slow breaths through her nose, her whole body trembling.

Picking up a cloth off the closest shelf, Clef reached around Umi to wet it with cold water before returning to press in gently against the back of her neck.

"I just wanted to get the taste out of my mouth," she said miserably. 

Clef took the toothbrush out of her hand and dropped it back in the cup before pulling her over to the bench and into a hug, murmuring near-wordless nonsense. Umi leaned in close, pressing her tear-streaked face into the curve of his neck.

"You're wet," she complained.

"I was in the bath."

"Guess that makes sense," she muttered. Her warm breath on his skin giving his body inappropriate ideas. She pulled back a few moments later, taking a few shuddering breaths while she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "You're _naked_."

"That usually happens when I have a bath." He tucked her hair behind her ear. "It's time we got you to the Healers."

"I'm _fine_ ," Umi told him, a snap reappearing in her voice as she leaned away from him. "If I still feel bad on Monday, I'll go to the doctor at home. I'm just tired, is all. It's probably still just that fatigue thing."

Clef felt his carefully constructed calm crumbling. "Umi, even if this was magic fatigue - which doesn't make people throw up - what would your doctors in Tokyo be able to do about a problem with your _magic_? But this isn't fatigue anymore - or not just. This is something else too," he said. "You can argue with me all you like, but even if you're not pregnant, you must be _seriously ill_ to still be feeling this bad."

"I'm not that sick, and I'm definitely not _pregnant_!" She shoved him away as she threw herself to her feet.

"I can't think of any other reasons for you to be feeling like this!"

"Stop being so - so -" Umi waved her hands with a groan of frustration. "Last week was all about the stupid cake, and this week, it's a stomach thing. Next, you'll be fretting because I'm still late - _bleeding_ , or whatever you want to call it."

"It's been _nine weeks_ , and you don't think that's worrying?" If her average was five, that was four weeks too many.

"I've been this late before, so it's not like it's anything to worry about. When I skip a go, it does a whole other cycle before it appears again, so I'm barely even _due_ to bleed yet." She glared at him, defiant in her logic.

"It's something to be concerned about when you've had unprotected sex!" Clef was on his feet a moment later, pulling his trousers back out of the basket and dragging them on. "We are _going down to the Healers_."

"I'm not pregnant, Clef! I can't be!" Her voice went high. "It's _impossible_. I refuse to believe it."

"You can convince me to sleep with you against my better judgement, but no mere force of will - no matter how stubborn you may be - can remove a child if it has already started inside of you."

"I'm can't _be_ pregnant," she repeated, her eyes blazing. "You're wrong!" She pushed past him and out the dressing room door. He barely had the trousers fasten when he ran out to see Umi shove her feet into her boots then slam out of the front door.

Cursing under his breath, Clef went after her, but he only made it three paces down the corridor before she vanished completely, leaving nothing but a trace of magic in the air. A cold chill ran through Clef's body as he stumbled to a halt, staring at the space where she'd disappeared.

.*.*.*.

Umi hadn't been thinking of anything but putting space between herself and Clef. Why did he have to be so utterly single-minded? It was infuriating! She wasn't going to give in and go see a healer if he kept _nagging_ her.

But she didn't mean to throw herself through to Tokyo.

Materialising six inches off the ground mid-step would make anyone stumble. Umi fell hard to her knees, rain pouring down on her. It soaked through her shirt even as she pulled herself to her feet. Her hands and knees stung where she'd hit the ground, and tears joined the rain running down her face.

Umi didn't recognise where she was. It was nowhere near Tokyo Tower, and without her bag, she didn't have money to get anywhere else. If there were even any trains running. What time _was_ it? Where was she?

Swallowing down the rising panic, she walked down the street with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, water thumping down on her hard enough to be painful. She had just wanted to get away, this was beyond extreme. The tiny spark of magic that was her tether to Cephiro was stretched and aching, and not responding to any tentative thoughts about going back. If Cephiro wasn't an option, she'd just have to figure out a way home from here.

When she reached the junction, Umi realised she _did_ know where she was. This was a road she walked almost every day from the station. Picking up the pace, she ran the rest of the way home.

The slamming of the gate echoed down the street, but Umi didn't care. She was _home_. 

Throwing herself up the final few steps, Umi doubled over to catch her breath in front of the door. When she finally reached for the handle, she froze, realising it was locked for the night. Her house key was still in the side pocket of her school bag, which was still on her bed at the Castle.

It took a few more moments for Umi to pull herself together, forcing herself to breathe normally. She wiped her eyes, and ran her fingers through her soaking wet hair, then lifted her hand to knock.

Lights turned on through the house. The footsteps coming down the stairs meant it was was very late, if her mother wasn't still in her study with her evening cup of tea. The lock clicked and the door opened.

" _Umi_ , what happened! Are you hurt?" Mama looked her over as she stepped into the house. 

Umi could only imagine what her mother thought of her turning up in the middle of the night wearing only half of her school uniform, but she hadn't expected the second question. 

"Should I call the police?"

"No. I'm okay." Umi shook her head. With scraped knees and red eyes, Umi knew she didn't _look_ okay, and she couldn't meet her mother's worried stare. "It was just a stupid argument. I'm fine."

"Umi-dear…" Mama was unconvinced.

"I'm alright. I promise," Umi said, trying her hardest not to shake, or burst into tears again, water running off her to puddle on the floor. She bowed. "I'm sorry."

Mama didn't press her for more information but drew her further inside. "You're soaked through. Come have a bath before you catch a cold."

They walked to the bathroom together. Mama seemed reluctant to leave her. While Umi was peeling her wet clothes off, Mama got the bath water running. When her mother left to go fetch a nightgown, Umi turned up the bath temperature before sitting down to wash herself. She wanted to the water hot enough to distract her from anything else, and it was definitely that. The heat nearly took her breath away as she lowered herself in.

Umi stayed in the water until the heat started to make her dizzy. Drying off and stepping out of the shower room, Umi pulled on the nightgown and dressing gown her mother had left for her and went to her room.

She was still towel drying her hair - with Peach complaining at her for being damp - when her mother knocked on the half-open door, asking to come in.

It suddenly felt like being seven-years-old again and in trouble for getting into a fight at school. (She still maintained she'd done the school a service by punching Jacques in the face, because he wasn't inclined to call anyone else names after that.) Only this time, she'd been arguing with her boyfriend - who she shouldn't have been staying with - and ended up running home.

Mama walked in. Papa was close behind her, his hair still mussed from sleep. Mama pushed the cat to the foot of the bed and sat down beside Umi. Papa turned the desk chair round to face them.

"You didn't stay with Hikaru tonight," Mama said, tucking Umi's hair behind her ear. It was less of an accusation and more of statement.

"I… um…" Umi chewed her lip. She didn't know what to say. She had spent most of the day with Hikaru, and she'd half-planned to spend the night in their room, because otherwise she'd have been tempted to not to spend as much of the night sleeping as she should have to shift the _definitely magic fatigue_ she was struggling with.

"Were you with Clef tonight?" Papa asked.

When Umi hesitated then nodded, Mama looked dangerously serious. "What sort of argument did you have?"

"Just - it was just stupid stuff. He was being a twit about - things. Not - it wasn't -" Umi said. She couldn't tell her parents what they'd argued about without causing so much trouble.

"Umi, is he pressuring you to sleep with him?" Papa asked.

" _Papa_!"

"It's a reasonable question, Umi," Mama agreed. "I can't imagine many other arguments that would have you running home in the middle of the night."

"Sometimes young men assume things," Papa continued. "Especially if you stay past the last train."

"He wouldn't do that," Umi declared, shaking her head. "If anything, _I'm_ the one who -" She bit off the end of the sentence. 

Mama raised an eyebrow at her, and Papa cleared his throat. It was one thing for her mother to have guessed, another entirely for her to say it.

"I'm fine, really. I'm not hurt. Just - it was raining and wet and I _slipped_. I bruised my knees, that's all!"

"And your hands?" Mama asked, reaching out and turning Umi's hands over so the grazes were on display.

"And my hands," Umi insisted, tears starting to threaten again. "He just - I got so _angry_ , and -"

The first tears slipped hot over her cheeks, and she pulled her hands away to scrub them away with the cuff of her dressing gown. Mama stroked one hand over her hair, and Umi swayed into the touch slightly - like she was seven years again, and _far_ too young for trouble like this.

"Okay," Mama said, quietly, wrapping an arm about Umi's shoulders. "It's okay, Umi. It'll be okay. Let's put something on those cuts, then you can sleep, alright?"

Umi nodded, crying harder, and barely paying attention as her father was dispatched for the first-aid kit and some mint tea. She just curled into her mother's side and cried as of she could wash away her anger with Clef and the nagging, _stubborn_ little voice that was wondering if he could be - right.

It was _impossible_. But that didn't stop her crying until her eyes hurt while her mother held her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **In the next chapter:** Clef approaches the Council with his next repeal bill, Umi has some trouble at school...
> 
> ... and the lingering question is finally answered.
> 
> Who do you think is right? Umi or Clef?
> 
>  **Note:** All feedback is loved and appreciated.
> 
>    
> I love reading comments, and I do get a little enthusiastic in replying to them. I hope I haven't scared anyone off from commenting due to my excessive responses.


	15. In which a question is answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last night, I asked my lovely wife and beta reader, Down, to read over the changes I'd made to the first Umi scenes in this chapter, and she ended up doing a full edit of the chapter for me, so here is chapter 15 a little earlier than planned. I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I don't think the new tags count as spoilers given how heavy handed I've been with the foreshadowing in this silly nonsense. (You knew this was coming if you've read this far.)

Clef lay in his oppressively empty bed, staring up at the ceiling. Every single one of his tracking spells had come back empty. Umi hadn't left him, she'd left Cephiro entirely.

He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, clutching at the sheets as he tried to keep himself from flinging himself out of bed and going - somewhere, anywhere.

There was nothing in his head but a ringing, wordless panic, which was pointless, because what could he _do_? If she was - Even if he was wrong, he'd done more than enough already. He couldn't follow her. Shouldn't, even if he could - if she wanted to be away from him _that badly_ , and she should, she deserved so much better than him

Finally, the room started to lighten, and Clef gave up on sleep, crawling out of his bed. He dressed in the first set of robes his hands hit and left for home.

The kettle was just starting to whistle when he walked in through the back door. Aveo was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a teapot in hand, wearing her faded orange dressing gown, and froze when she caught sight of him. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing to do with Mazda." Clef didn't need to get his household tangled up in this mess any more than they already were. He headed straight for the kettle, collecting the teapot from Aveo on his way past. He filled the pot while she fetched another cup, waiting him out until he took a breath and asked. "What do my accounts look like?"

"Clef, if this is your way of telling me you're quitting, I will _not_ be happy." She eyed him. "I don't care how much they're irritating you, I'm not dealing with the politicians myself."

He shook his head. "I just - I need to know how much money I have"

Aveo nodded slowly and led the way up into her wing of the house. She pushed him down into a seat at her desk, before pulling a roll of papers from one of the cubby holes. She smoothed it out and showed him the current balance noted in the corner.

He stared. That many numbers were probably - good? It would buy a lot of books, but - he didn't really know what much else cost. Household expenses weren't something he'd needed to deal with - well, ever. He'd been Guru for centuries. His position was paid, but he'd had hardly any need for the money while working. Everything he could need - food, housing, clothing - was provided for through Guild accounts. Before that, he'd done some civil service work which came with the same benefits, though probably less money. Then before that, he'd gone straight from his parents household to an apprentice who was looked after by his teacher.

One of the many reasons he'd asked Aveo for help with the ward was because she understood money and could both manage Mazda's finances and keep him from mucking them up. She'd offered to maintain his accounts and the general household at the same time, as he'd decided to invest a chunk his own personal savings into the infrastructure and the local economy. (Even if she'd disapproved of some of his, ah, investments lately.)

He poked the numbers and sighed. "I have no idea how much that is."

"More than enough for you to live on for a good few centuries," she said. When he shifted in his seat she added, "More than enough for you and a consort and a dozen other people besides, if you learn how to _not_ spend obscene amounts of money on gifts."

Clef sat back, wrapping shaking fingers about his cup of tea. "Good."

"Now, I don't care what you do over there as Guru, but you better not be planning to up and leave me in charge of Mazda. I don't mind being Seneschal, but I am definitely _not_ willing to be Warden." She gave him a pointed look. "You can keep doing the Council nonsense. I'd rather keep to my numbers, thank you."

"I'm not planning to." He shook his head. "Sorry. I just..." He bit his lip, looking down.

She waved him off. "I don't need an explanation if you don't want to talk about whatever it is."

"Thank you." He took a long drink of his tea, and sighed. He could _feel_ Aveo watching him. "I'm sorry. I just- We had an argument last night. She - left. Went home."

"You and Umi?" Aveo reached across to pat him on the arm when he nodded. "Well, this isn't the first time you've come home complaining that she's yelled at you and stormed out. I'm sure it's not going to be the last time, either. You'll sort it out. You both care too much to stay apart too long."

"But - I deserved it, and -" He cut himself off. "It's my fault."

"Isn't it always?" Aveo asked, pulling her very best shocked face at him, and startling him into a laugh. "Now come out of here. You can help me with breakfast now you're here."

.*.*.*.

It was still early when Clef made his way into the village to the townhouse. It stood just off the main square, three stories house of light stone that shone an iridescent green in the morning light. His somewhat whimsical frieze of Fyula mid-flight still decorated the lintel over the door, even though the girls had repainted the woodwork a deep green.

There was a large leafy vine climbing up the wall, reaching down over the door. Clef poked at the bright star-shaped flowers and tutted under his breath before opening the door and walking in. 

"Why haven't you removed that blasted vine yet?" he called by way of greeting.

"Did you come all the way here to complain about that again?" Kalos asked, appearing on the stairs dressed in a dressing gown just as disreputable as her mother's. "If it wants to pull the house down, it'll have to take Teana's with it."

"Well, when it does, I'm not putting it back up for you" Clef grumbled. "Is Brisa in?"

Kalos rolled her eyes. "At this hour? Where else would she be? We've had no emergencies." She leaned over the railing to shout towards the back of the house. "Hey, Bri, Clef's here to see you."

"What'd I do to earn that honour?" Brisa asked, stepping out of the kitchen, whisking some sort of batter in a large earthenware bowl Clef recognised from days trying to teach her any kind of competence at potion-making.

"Could you go over this repeal bill for me?" He asked, holding up a sheaf of paper.

"What, _now_?" Brisa stared at him, whisk stilling.

Clef flushed but nodded. "If you aren't busy."

"It's breakfast time," Kalos objected, staring down at him.

"I - I can come back later." Clef looked at the papers, then the table by the door, but he didn't want to leave his only draft of the repeal anywhere. "In an hour? Or -"

"Oh, stop it. I've been telling Ciel that we need to get her practising her editing skills." Brisa waved a hand at him. "Go get yourself settled. I'll be there in a moment. Ciel can join us after breakfast. You can take over here, right, Kal?"

Kalos groaned, but came down to take possession of the bowl and whisk, before chasing Clef into Brisa's study to wait. 

Five fidgeting minutes later, a fully-dressed Brisa came to join him, thumping a large pot of pens on the table between them. "Well, let's see it." She held out a hand and skimmed through the pages briefly before looking back over at him. "The bill itself won't take too long, but you've got, what, twenty pages of supporting arguments to get in one written statement. Just how soon are you wanting it?"

Clef winced. "I was hoping to introduce it at the next Council meeting."

"This week?" Brisa stared at him over the papers. "If you're expecting that sort of turn around, you should take this to the Judges Guild. They've got a lot more people than just me and my half-trained apprentice."

"Normally I would, but this is a private bill, so it's not technically Guild business." He'd been told so quite forcefully when he'd taken it to them.

"So? They take commissioned work all the time. If you need to pay, Aveo will let you have the money for that." Laying the papers down, Brisa crossed her arms over them. "Or is there something else?"

"I don't think the Guild is pleased with me trying to put all this through at once. Not with all the Council's new legislation coming to them at the same time - there've been a lot of things on the agenda lately."

Brisa sighed and picked one of the pens out of the pot, unscrewing the lid and giving Clef a stern look. "Why don't you make yourself useful and get us a pot of tea. This is going to take a while."

.*.*.*.

Umi slept her way through Sunday morning, only getting up to use the toilet. She vaguely remembered the doorbell ringing and then Hikaru peering into her room, with a whispered 'Good, you got home safely'.

She might have decided she'd dreamt it, but her bags were in her room when she finally woke up, and it wasn't like her parents could have gone to fetch him from Cephiro.

Despite the extra sleep, Umi felt worse than when she'd landed in Cephiro yesterday. Sleeping through breakfast had her waking up utterly nauseated, but she was so hungry her stomach ached and that only made it worse. She dragged herself out of bed and trudged downstairs to find something to eat - anything to stop feeling like her insides were trying to turn inside out.

"Good morning," Mama greeted her far too brightly.

"Morning," Umi muttered, trudging into the kitchen.

"Do you want breakfast?"

The idea of a real breakfast made her pull a face. She could just about handle the thought of rice or bread, but considering anything else that might go with them just made her feel ill. "Maybe just some rice? I feel terrible. My stomach decided it hates me."

Mama tilted her head, watching Umi a moment. "I could make you some okayu? Just a little ginger and spring onion with it?"

Umi nodded. That almost sounded nice. In the meantime, she dug a small package of crackers out of the cupboard and made herself a cup of tea before curling up in the sitting room. The mug made her grazed hands ache a little, but it wasn't too bad.

"Are you ready to talk about last night?" Mama asked when she the bowl down on the table beside her.

"No," Umi said, her face flushing horribly.

The expression on her mother's face was far more worried than a few little scratches should make her. So Umi'd been upset - they'd argued because Clef was an overprotective twit! Then she'd made herself ill again doing magic she shouldn't have - and hadn't meant to - and he was going to be pissed off about _that_ too even though she was the one who felt atrocious.

Umi thrust her spoon into the bowl. "I'm fine," she muttered, forcing her voice to stay level.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Mama said, reaching over to lay a hand over Umi's. "I promise I won't get angry."

Umi sighed. "It was just a ridiculous argument, I promise. I wasn't feeling well either, and I just wanted to come home. Then I tripped and it was raining and everything was -" She waved a hand, biting her lip.

Mama nodded with an indescribable expression on her face. "When you're ready to talk, I'm here," she said, giving Umi's hand a gentle pat before leaving her.

Umi turned around in her seat to watch Mama disappear. It wasn't - There wasn't anything to talk about!

No matter what Clef said.

.*.*.*.

The next week passed in something like a blur. No matter how much water she drank, hours she slept, or headache medicine she took, Umi just couldn't shake what felt like an awful hangover - or maybe even the flu. Her head and her body ached and she felt generally miserable. While _she_ knew there wasn't anything a doctor could do to help with magic fatigue, she wasn't sure how she talked her parent out of making her go see one anyway.

She pushed her way to the end of the week before she even noticed that her parents hadn't mentioned Clef once since she'd stumbled home in the rain. Not one comment about her boyfriend, or meeting him, or anything. It was as if he'd never existed.

Upon realising this, Umi was suddenly aware of her parents having conversations which ended when she walked into the room and watching her when they thought she wasn't looking. One of them was now always home when she was - which _had_ to mean they'd rearranged work - and answering the phone before she did.

It wasn't going to make a difference when it came to Clef, but Umi didn't actually mind her parents screening her calls. It meant she could to tell them she wasn't going out that weekend and they could pass the message on to Hikaru, Fuu, and any other friends without her having to explain herself.

Come Saturday after school, Umi shed her uniform and crawled into bed for a nap only to end up sleeping through the night.

But the next morning, she almost felt like herself again, and after another good night sleep, Monday was almost enjoyable. Which was a good thing because her class was starting to work on their play in earnest, and she wanted to pull her weight with the preparations.

Her increased energy levels brought with it the return of her appetite. She kept snacking on her bento during break times and kept finishing it before lunch only to have a full meal in the school canteen. That earned her a few strange looks from her friends, but it wasn't like she'd never snacked between lessons before. Just because she wasn't fencing as many days a week, didn't mean it was weird she was back into her old habits. And she hadn't really been eating properly the past few weeks, so it made sense she was making up for it now that she finally seemed to be shaking the fatigue off.

But practicing for the play had Umi more active than she'd been in weeks, and with the time she was spending after school, she wasn't getting a nap in before dinner, and by mid-week, it felt like she was fighting to stay awake in lessons, again. Well, she'd _nearly_ shaken it off, at least. She was half tempted to skip out on festival prep Thursday afternoon, but Rika convinced her to stay with the promise Moe was going to order pizza for everyone.

She spent half an hour with the other performers, going through the first few scenes at one end of the classroom, while their classmates worked on props and costumes spread across the desks at the other end. Then Moe vanished and reappeared, triumphantly carrying a stack of boxes.

Pizza had sounded so _nice_ , and Umi was hungry again, but it smelled so _awful_.

She fled the room, shooting out the closest fire door to stand shuddering in the fresh air, hands tight on the railing. Satomi, Rika, and Yui all appeared around her a few moments later. "Hey, are you okay?" Rika asked.

Umi shook her head, not willing to open her mouth just yet.

"Maybe you should go lay down in the infirmary," Yui suggested.

"It's after school, nitwit," Satomi said. "The infirmary's probably locked."

While the Yui and Satomi argued about that, Rika guided Umi slowly back toward the classroom. "You can go home, if you're not feeling well," she suggested. "We'll have plenty of time to run through the choreography before the festival."

Going home sounded good. Umi turned back into the doorway of the classroom and stumbled back out with her hand over her nose and mouth. "That's just terrible," she complained.

"The pizza?" Yui asked. She and Satomi had caught back up with them.

"But you usually love squid," Rika said.

Umi pulled a face. "Today it just smells bad. And the cheese, too."

Satomi looked Umi over and stared back at the classroom, her eyes going wide and her voice loud and shrill. "Are you _pregnant_?"

The rest of their class went silent, a few curious faces peered out the door, and all Umi would do was stare at Satomi, her stomach turning over from more than the smells. 

Two long beats passed before Rika burst out laughing. "Umi? Pregnant?" she barely managed between gasps. "Yeah, right."

"Like that would happened," Yui snorted, her eyes glittering. She slapped Satomi on the back. "You've been reading too many terrible romances. Not everyone is the 'billionaire's young mistress' or whatever."

"I know that!" Satomi snapped.

"You're just jealous that when Umi gains weight it all goes to her boobs," Moe laughed, joining them in the corridor.

"True," Rika agreed. "Umi quit fencing club and then _boom_!" She made exploding motions over her own chest.

Umi stared down at her - admittedly slightly snug - shirt. Sure she'd gotten a little bigger, maybe - she hadn't been doing all that much exercising! Plus, it was about _time_ she got a figure. Still, she was down to the last of her bras that fit. This one was a stretchy one she wore for fencing practice, but even it was getting uncomfortable. She'd been putting off asking Mama to help her find anything new, because it was bound to involve teasing about letting her boyfriend see this kind of thing yet - well, it would have been. Maybe not now.

With a nervous sort of laugh, Umi shook her head. "It's nothing."

"It's definitely not _nothing_ ," Yui cackled poking her in the chest. "You have to tell us your secret."

"I stopped chasing people about with a sword so often? Besides, they're not half as big as Satomi's!"

"True," Yue said, nodding sagely while Satomi crossed her arms over her chest and protested. "But maybe you've got a virus or something - do you want us to get your bag for you? You should go home and get some rest."

"You do look terrible," Moe agreed, and shot into the classroom to fetch Umi's bag for her, and the lot of them saw her to the end of the corridor.

Umi walked slowly enough to the stairs, then quickened her pace as she went down. She was nearly running by the time she made it out of the school gate. Satomi's words were ringing in her head. It was the first time anyone but Clef had actually said it. She tried so hard not to ruminate on it on her first train home, but by the time she stepped onto the platform where she changed trains, she couldn't deny the small voice in the back of her head wondering if they might be right.

Rather than catching her second train immediately, Umi paused on the platform, watching a woman settling a very small, very angry baby into a carrier, tucking a blanket carefully around the flailing feet.

It was _impossible_. There was no way Umi could be - _growing a new person_. Even if she felt - no.

 _Absolutely not_.

Well, there was one way to prove them wrong - if Clef hadn't been trying to drag her to the Healers every five seconds, she'd probably have thought of it well before now.

She headed out of the station, looking for a pharmacy sign.

Picking a little pink box off the back shelf, she carried it back up to the till.

Really, she should have gone home and changed before doing this. It wouldn't do for rumours to circulate about her school, but it was too late now - at least it wasn't close enough to home that they recognised her. She avoided eye contact with the cashier while she paid and then shoved her purchase deep into her school bag before walking back to the station.

She spent the entire second train ride clutching her bag to her chest, telling herself this was ridiculous. It was literally physically impossible for her to bring anything home from Cephiro. She'd been on the potion until travelling home possible broke it, so it wasn't even like something could have implanted itself into her before the trip.

There was no way. And if she took the test, it would be giving in to Clef's anxious nagging, and she refused to do that.

She hurried home from the train, shot up to her room, and shoved the test into the drawer with the unopened box of condoms. _There._ She was just - prepared for the future, when it _might_ be a question if Clef stopped being so - _useless_ about things and she let him near her again.

.*.*.*.

The next meeting of the full Council was running late - as usual - when Verna called for any other business. Clef raised his hand before anyone else could, and waited for her nod.

"I wish to put forward a private bill regarding restrictions on the roles of Guru, Soru, and Teru," he rattled off, and forced himself to take a breath before finishing the formula at a more reasonable pace. "I have the bill prepared to be heard. If there isn't time today - as we are running somewhat late - then I request it be placed on the agenda for next session." He would be a complete wreck by then, of course, especially if he still hadn't heard from Umi, but getting it on the agenda was a start.

"How generous of you, offering to wait so long," muttered Sylphy.

He ignored her, but Verna had barely finished her call for responses when the room erupted into noise.

"Not again," Murano snapped, through the discontented rumble. "We only just heard the last one!"

"More to the point, have we not agreed that private member bills should come to this Council only once they've been passed by the Scheduling Committee?" Gorham said, disapproval clear in every word as he turned to Clef. "Proposing private bills straight to this Council should only happen in an emergency. Your lack of a love life does not constitute an emergency."

"I _took_ this series to the scheduling committee several months ago," Clef said, through gritted teeth. "The consensus was as the last two bills were reliant for timing on the passing of the previous ones, they should not be scheduled in, but brought up before Council. So that is what I am doing."

Gorham frowned. "The debate on private bills occurred _after_ the last meeting of the Scheduling Committee, didn't it? You should abide by that ruling, now it's been made."

"Oh, come on, Gorham," said Ferio, slouching back in his chair. "That was a ruling explicitly exempting _emergency_ bills from the committee stage, not forcing everything else to go through it! I still think irregular items should be tabled like this. It's called 'other business', not 'what we've decided is imperative this week'. Anyway, didn't we hear Brevetti's request to start mining in Skoda's mountains in other business last session? That was hardly an emergency!"

"Skoda's economy was in significant danger after they lost the Taabo crop," Gorham said, primly.

This bill and the next were feeling a lot more imperative than Clef could come out and say. But people were taking Gorham's side that he should take this to the committee, despite Auris calling out "Can't we get it over with and just hear the cursed thing before this gets dragged out for months?"

There was, however, another problem with the committee route, which he realised with a rush of cold down his spine as he looked at his notes. "Whether or not it constitutes an emergency, I cannot take it before the Scheduling Committee for the next quarter. You've just nominated me to sit on it. I can't bring a proposal to the committee while I'm _on_ it."

"You'll just have to wait, then, with the rest of us," Murano snapped.

Staring, Clef waved a hand in the empty air. "There's not another committee for more than three months! And if you're only letting me put one forward at a time -"

"So what? Like Gorham said, your love life's not an emergency. You don't have a deadline for this," Murano shot back. "We've more important things to be debating! It's not like anyone actually cares whether you're in love with that girl."

"Stop that," Verna snapped, glaring around at all of them. "You are drifting from the point. I do agree with the Guru that there should be a method for those on the committee to bring items to the Council while they're serving. If not, a large percentage of our number will be hampered each quarter. Does anyone have a better idea than bringing them here?"

No one did, but Gorham stuck to his point. "If that's so - and I, personally, don't think being on the committee should give someone extra privileges - the fact remains that the Guru has been elected to the committee for the _next_ quarter, not this one. It doesn't even meet for another week. Nothing should be proposed to the Council outside of the period which the member has been nominated for."

"What difference can another few weeks _possibly_ make?" Clef snapped.

"None," Gorham returned. "Which is why you should wait - it makes no difference _not_ hearing it this week."

"It makes a difference to me!" Clef swallowed his temper down. "There's a lot to be done to fix our rules, I know, but not everything we debate is directly tied to the - the stability of Cephiro. These rules no longer fit Cephiro, if they ever did. Their repeal is part of ensuring that the system remains fair for all our citizens - and that the right people are made available for our highest-ranked posts."

"Are you suggesting some of use are _not_ the right person for our post," Soru Torneo said, sharply.

Clef winced, but lifted his chin and stuck to his point. "Perhaps I am thinking that when I was chosen, there was a very narrow field, as it was limited to those who - by inclination or design - had none of the deepest ties to their community and their land. When my successor is chosen, the best person should be picked, no matter who they sleep with."

"That may well be," Verna cut in, "But the fact remains that you are not on the committee for the current quarter. If we do not limit the open period to active service, people will merely start using it to bypass the whole committee process." Verna waved a hand. "You must wait."

"Fine." Clef slumped back into his seat with the sigh.

.*.*.*.

A day after she'd hidden it away, Umi threw her bag onto her bed and ripped open the top drawer of her desk. Her period remained inexplicably absent. She was tired and stressed, and there were plenty of other reasons she hadn't gotten it, but one day of constantly thinking about it was _too much_.

She grabbed the box and headed to the toilet.

When the lines appeared, all the logic and excuses in the world weren't enough to keep a chill creeping down her spine as she stared at them.

Umi shoved the test back into the plastic bag and shot back into her room, dropping it into the drawer, so she couldn't see it. That second line had appeared far too quickly. It had to be defective - had to, because it certainly couldn't be true. 

She'd just have to get another one. No, two more, just to prove the first comprehensively wrong. Changing out of her uniform into a different shirt and skirt, she grabbed her purse out of her school bag and shoved it into her handbag before heading out.

Papa appeared around the corner while she was putting on her shoes. "Are you going out?"

"Not for long," Umi said, trying to come up with a reason while she focused on tying her shoes. "There's a book Satomi was telling me about."

It wasn't exactly a lie. Satomi had been telling them all about the current romance she was reading at break time. Umi hadn't actually been that interested in it - Satomi had an annoying preference for overbearing heroes - but a new book was reason enough to go out.

"I'll be back soon," she called as she practically threw herself out the door.

Her first stop was the bookstore to keep her cover, going over to the new romances and grabbing one at random. It wasn't as if her father paid much attention to the titles. If she didn't like it, she could just pass it off to Satomi later. Shopping bag in hand, she walked more sedately to the pharmacy and bought two more tests - two different brands, just to be sure it wasn't a manufacturing fault.

Calling out a greeting as she walked back into the house, Umi kicked off her shoes and practically ran upstairs.

When that test came up with two lines again - this one in shape of a plus sign - Umi threw it in the bin and sat down on her bed with the instruction sheet. She couldn't actually be pregnant. She must have done it wrong. Reading over the directions in both Japanese and English, she focused on the part where it said the results were most accurate first thing in the morning. She would try the third then.

Umi barely managed to eat any of her dinner that night, stomach churning in a way she could tell was different to the nausea she'd been having for weeks on end. She couldn't get the test results out of her head. 

They had to be wrong. Because if they weren't...

What if she was wrong about them not being able to bring things back from Cephiro? What if she had managed it this time?

Sleep was elusive that night, and she lay in bed staring at the ceiling for hours. The nausea, even her new craving for cake and sweets, all fit as symptoms of magic fatigue. She even felt better when she'd managed to not use magic, or to stay in Cephiro overnight, so why?

Unless… the unwelcome thought floated up, unless she'd been dealing with symptoms from _both_ things.

There was no escaping the final verdict the next morning. The third test showed the same result as the previous two. Two lines boldly mocked her arrogance and impatience. 

The whole world felt like it was closing in around her. She could hardly breathe. This wasn't supposed to have happened. Clef was just paranoid, and she was fighting off fatigue - just that. She couldn't be pregnant! 

It was _treason_.

She couldn't have done that to him!

Mama calling her down to breakfast startled her so badly she jumped, but it was enough to shake her out of her panic. She would have to deal with this later, it was time to leave. She threw the test in the bin with the other one and finished getting ready.

When she made it downstairs, her mother was waiting to say goodbye and hesitated when she saw Umi's face. "Are you okay?" Mama asked.

Umi managed a tiny nod, as her panic returned. She didn't trust herself to speak, because she knew she'd just burst into tears. They were going to be so disappointed in her. They'd done so much for her and this was how she repaid them.

"Papa's still here, if you need anything," Mama said, pulling Umi into a quick hug. "I'll be home when you get back from school. We can talk then, if you want to? Have a good day."

What was she supposed to do with a baby? The plan was moving to Cephiro to become a qualified mage and then work on gaining the Karu status to turn Iru into Kairu. Where did having a baby fit in with becoming a magic swordsperson?

And on top of that - what would this do to _Clef_?

She'd pushed her egg across the plate a third time when Papa folded his paper and set it down on the table. "What's the matter, Umi?" he asked. "You haven't been yourself recently. Mama and I are worried about you."

Umi forced out a soft "I'm fine."

No time for that now. She still had to concentrate at school, even if felt like her world was trying to end.

English class was, fortunately, an exception since Umi already spoke fluently, as, unfortunately, did Satomi who sat near enough to see what Umi was writing when Umi flipped to a blank page in her diary and started making a list of her options, in an attempt to work out what she was going to do. That was why she was doing it in grammatically questionable French.

If she had a baby -

If she had the baby, she would probably be forfeiting any chance of beating Hikaru at becoming a Kairu.

The baby would probably need to be kept in Tokyo since Clef wasn't allowed a family. Then what? She'd only just be eighteen and a single mother. That would definitely hit the papers, wouldn't it? _Underage Ryuuzaki Heir Becomes Single Mother_.

But she couldn't marry Clef. It wasn't allowed, and he was very much not Japanese. That sort of thing needed identification and legal paperwork, and there was no way they would be able to sort that out. Cephiro didn't exist in this world, and he certainly didn't have a passport or any sort of identity papers.

She could probably marry Huki; he'd agree to it if she explained the situation. Her parents liked him, and she wasn't sure they didn't already half expect her to marry him. It wouldn't be difficult to come up with a story about how the baby happened either; they spent enough time together. For all anyone else knew they could have snuck off to Umi's bedroom at the party last month. It was believable enough, especially since so many people knew about what happened between them last winter.

There was the option of moving to Cephiro and having it there.

No one would expect her to be married there, and it would keep it out of the papers here. If she kept her distance from Clef, he probably wouldn't get in trouble.

No, that wouldn't work. 

She scratched it out. There was no way she could keep Clef's baby a secret; everyone would know it was his. They hadn't been subtle. Especially not at Ouran's blasted ball. She couldn't ask anyone else to pretend to be the father, because no one would believe it. Not even Ascot - he'd agree to help her, but too many people knew he wasn't interested in sex for it to be believable, and she hadn't been hanging off his arm.

Umi lifted her head and looked about the room. There were still several months of school left. She'd spent nearly six years here. The last thing she wanted to do was quit when she was so close to being finished. Her parents had invested so much into her education, and they expected her to go on to university and get a good degree once she graduated. She'd had so many plans for telling them how the Academy was basically a very special foreign university, but like this… She wouldn't be going anywhere.

It would be better if she ended it. 

It would be better if it had never happened. The plan had been to have sex with him, not a baby.

She stared down at the paper. It _had_ happened, and she needed to make a choice.

Closing her eyes, she took a shuddering breath, utterly daunted by the whole idea. She was barely able to look after _herself_ \- sure, she could fight and throw magic about and make - impatient choices, but she wasn't ready to look after someone else!

… But her mother had.

Umi shut her diary, hand shaking, but resolved. She needed help. Tonight she was telling her parents everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **In the next chapter:** Umi has a number of long conversations with her parents, and choices are made.
> 
>  **Note:** All feedback is loved and appreciated.


	16. In which Umi sees a doctor and makes a choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to Down for the help on this chapter. I was struggling with it for weeks, and we finally worked out that my timeline was all wrong, and I needed to change when certain events happen in this section. After rewriting half of this chapter from scratch twice, it is finally what it should be. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this update. I'm glad I did manage to get it finished before the end of the month, so there is definitely a September update. 
> 
> I love an appreciate all of you. Thank you for reading.

All the effort Umi put into psyching herself up to talk through this in a calm and composed fashion, like an _adult_ , fell apart the moment she walked into her mother's study. Mama looked up and smiled at her, waving her to come in while she finished her phone call. When she hung up, her cheerful "Welcome home" broke Umi's resolve.

"I'm sorry," she said and burst into tears.

"Oh, darling." Mama wrapped her arms around Umi and drew her through to the sitting room where there was a sofa and a box of tissues.

"I'm - sorry!" Umi wailed again, as the tissues were pressed into her hands. "I'm - I'm -"

"Hush," her mother said, sitting down with her and pulling Umi gently against her shoulder, wrapping an arm about her. "Let yourself cry first. You can tell me everything later; there's no rush."

Umi curled into her mother's arms, and let herself cry like she hadn't done for years. Not since the first time they'd been summoned to Cephiro. She'd wanted to badly some days - trying to work out what she wanted to do after high school, and trying to face what she felt about Clef. But it had seemed so petty, compared to Emeraude's fate.

Finally, her resolve was broken. She cried until her head ached and her eyes hurt and she had no more tears left. It didn't change anything; she was still pregnant and still didn't know what to do. But she felt lighter somehow.

"Why don't you just sit here a minute." Mama said finally, rubbed soft circles on Umi's back. "I'll go make us some tea."

She disappeared and Umi took a few long shuddering breaths, closing her eyes.

A few minutes later, Mama returned with a tray with the tea set and a box of crackers. Setting it down on the table, she sat back down and asked, "Was your argument the other week because he wants you to keep it?"

Umi's head snapped up and she stared at her mother, shocked into silence.

Mama was just as poised as always as she poured tea for both of them, handing Umi a cup. "Or was it because he wants you to end it?"

"How did you know?" Umi demanded, fingers wrapping about the china on autopilot.

"I remember how I felt," her mother said, with a wry smile, and for the first time Umi actually _understood_ that her mother had been younger than Umi was now when she was pregnant. "So which as it?"

Umi shook her head so hard she nearly jostled her cup off the saucer "Neither. I was really sick that night, and he said - he said he thought I was pregnant. I said he was a twit." It looked like she had a few more tears left after all; they ran hot down her face. "He was just so insistent I see a doctor, that I yelled at him and came home. I didn't want him to be right."

"Oh, Umi." Mama stroked her hair.

"I was so _convinced_ he was wrong, that we couldn't have - that it was impossible." She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. "We were careful! We were, but -"

"Nothing is completely effective." Mama wrapped an arm around her.

"But what do I _do?_ " Umi nearly wailed.

"That's a decision you're going to have to make for yourself, love. Your father and I will support you whatever you choose to do - and whatever this 'Clef' of yours thinks about it." Her mother pulled her closer again. "Do you know how long it's been? That may change your options a little."

Umi stared down at the cup in her shaking hands, watching the ripples roll across the tea. "Nearly two months," she admitted, quietly, not looking at her mother.

"Have you spoken to him since you found out?" Mama's voice was gentle.

Umi shook her head. "I didn't know until yesterday. I haven't spoken to him since I came home. I was - I guess I was frightened he'd take me to see a doctor and they'd tell me what I didn't want to hear." She took a breath. "This isn't his fault, Mama. I'm the one that was pushing. And his job is - it's complicated." She closed her eyes, voice getting quieter. "It's a _mess_."

"He has to sign the form if you choose to end it," her mother said. "So, you'll need to tell him, even you aren't going to go through with it."

"I could say he's left the country, or fake his signature, or something… Do you think I should?" Umi asked. Her fingers tightening around the cup. "Do you think I shouldn't-" Do what? Have a baby and keep it hidden in Tokyo?

"It is an option, but, unless you're planning on cutting all ties with him, I think you need to talk to him before you make any final decisions."

The idea of telling Clef she was pregnant was almost more panic-inducing than actually being pregnant. What would he say? Would _he_ want her to end it? Or with everything he'd already lost would he want this child, not for the child's sake but like some sort of awful consolation prize?

No matter _what_ he wanted, those blasted laws were about his neck like a noose just waiting for him to slip and fall. Asking him to help choose would be like - like asking him to willfully implode his life.

Well, she'd already asked that of him, if you thought about it. And look how well that turned out.

"Back when he first thought - I didn't let him keep talking, but he was trying to tell me about all the options I had. I don't think he'd - push if I knew what I wanted."

"But if you don't, talking to him might help you be certain," Mama said, gently.

"He's not _allowed_ -" Umi bit down on her lip to keep from blurting out more. "It's complicated, Mama. I can't ask him to make the decision for me. It wouldn't be fair. I just - I need a plan, then I can tell him, and we'll talk about it. But I need the plan first."

Hesitating, her mother took a long drink of her tea. Umi could almost feel her trying to put all the things Umi had said about Clef into a whole that made sense. Whatever conclusions she reached, she didn't push. "We'll go to the doctor on Monday. They'll give you more information, and that should help."

They worked through the rest of the pot in silence, but it was a calm, almost comfortable sort of silence. Until Papa got home. He walked in, took one look at them, and froze in the doorway. "Oh, no. You were right? Oh, Umi, no."

Mama nodded. Umi ducked her head, flushing at the realisation not only had her mother guessed, but her parents had been talking about it.

"But you're _so young_ ," Papa said dropping into the chair closest to Umi.

"You forget, dear, Umi is the same age I was when we brought her home," Mama said, sounding amused.

"But you were an _older_ seventeen. This is - Where even is this 'Clef' person? Shouldn't he be here with you?"

"I haven't told him yet," Umi said, trying to keep her voice level. "Can we just leave him out of this right now?"

"Umi you didn't do this by yourself," Papa started, but Mama interrupted.

"Umi is the one who's pregnant; it's her choice. We'll deal with him afterward."

That sounded slightly ominous, but it got Papa to sit quietly for a minute, his hand reaching out to hold Umi's. Eventually, he took a breath and said "I'm not old enough to be a grandfather" with an air of despair. Umi shifted in her seat. "Just look at this face." He pointed at himself. "No one would believe it. 'Do you want to see pictures of my grandchild,' I'd say. 'Don't joke with us, you certainly aren't old enough to have a grandchild,' they'd say." He pulled a face, and Umi couldn't help giggling.

Mama reached over and gave his cheek a pinch. "You do remember you're seven years older than I am, right?"

"Ow!" Papa swatted her away and gave Umi a smile. "I'm not good with things like this," he said. "But no matter what happens, or what you decide, we're here for you. Even if this Clef-person skips town and is never heard from again, we've got plenty of room and money to look after another Ryuuzaki. Right, Mama?"

Mama nodded in agreement.

.*.*.*.

The few weeks since Clef had seen Umi felt like a century. Some afternoons, he could barely work in his castle office because he found himself looking up and expecting to see her sprawled in one of the chairs reading a book or banging through the doors.

It wasn't as if he didn't have other people who barged into his office asking questions, but he didn't enjoy those interruptions. And he could definitely use some diverting conversation right now. He'd just had to put one of their instructors on suspension while arranging the permanent stripping of their rank and expulsion from the Mage's Guild.

Clef was in the middle of reviewing the list of documents they'd sent to the Judges so far when the door burst open. The rush of relief was short-lived; rather than Umi, it was Hikaru who stood before him.

"Umi's not taking any of my calls," she said in a rush. "Fuu can't get in touch with her, either."

"Could she be busy?" Clef said, slowly. The excuses he'd been giving himself for the prolonged absence seemed thinner than ever. "With the school play, or…"

"That shouldn't be taking _all_ her time!" Hikaru was projecting worry so strongly Clef could almost see it, and he flinched. "Please - What happened the other week? Was she really ill when she left?"

"We argued," Clef said. He dropped his pen and rubbed his hands over his face. "She still wasn't feeling well, but she wouldn't go to the Healers. She just - left."

Hikaru shuffled on her feet. "I'm really worried. I don't know if I should go over to her house, or leave it another week. I'd understand if she had a nasty cold or something, considering how much it rained that night."

Clef straightened. Rain? Umi hadn't been dressed for inclement weather when she stormed out. She'd barely been dressed at all, considering how many layers went into her uniform this time of year. "She's ill?" he blurted - foolishly, given Hikaru had come to him because Umi wasn't talking to her.

"I don't _know_!" Hikaru burst out before he could apologise. "I know she made it home that night because she was in her room when I returned her stuff. Her father said she was unwell and sleeping when I called last week. Now it's just 'Umi's not taking calls right now' with no explanation. But, Clef, her parents keep asking questions. Questions about _you_. Where are you. How can they find you. What's your real name. Fuu said she got the same when she called."

Clef swallowed. "Oh," he whispered, throat tightening. He could only think of one reason for Umi to be unwell and her parents to be hunting him down, unless she'd come down with something terrible the night of their argument - that, too, would be his fault.

Deflating, Hikaru dropped into one of the chairs. "I'm really worried about her."

"Me too." He slumped further into his chair, voice cracking. "Me too."

.*.*.*.

Monday morning, Umi and her mother arrived in front of the cosy little building with the brightly painted sign reading 'Matoba Maternity Clinic'. "Don't be scared," Mama said, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "You were born here."

Umi swallowed and followed her mother in, where they were met with paperwork and a small group of waiting people.

When her turn came, they were greeted by a woman perhaps two decades older than Mama. "Ah! Mrs. Ryuuzaki, a pleasure to see you." She turned her smile to Umi. "And you've grown up well, I see."

"Perhaps a little too well," Mama said, ruffling Umi's hair. "It would seem that the child of a frog is indeed a frog."

Pulling away from her mother's hand, Umi bowed to the doctor with as much polite dignity as she could muster.

"If I could have your mother wait outside, we can have a talk," Dr. Matoba said. Umi followed her in and found herself facing more difficult questions than the paperwork had asked. The doctor wanted to know how she _felt_ about being pregnant, and if she wanted to continue it.

"I don't know," she whispered, looking down.

With a nod, Dr. Matoba stood up and led Umi back to another little curtained off room. The doctor and her assistant did their best to retain some sense of Umi's modesty during the examination, but the curtains and draped clothes all seemed a little ridiculous when someone had their hand between her legs and an uncomfortably large ultrasound wand in a place she'd really rather not have it. It was impossible to ignore, no matter how hard she stared at the ceiling.

"Ah! There it is," the doctor said. Umi looked at the screen and, for the briefest of moments, she forgot to breathe.

She'd expected some sort of shapeless thing, but there, in black and white, was the unmistakable beginnings of a new little person. It had a head with a recognisable nose and mouth, little arms that kept moving as the wand was adjusted, and she barely cared about the discomfort for a moment. There was a little flutter where its heart was beating away.

This was far more real than two lines on a plastic stick had ever seemed.

Dr. Matoba asked if they could turn the audio on, and the sound of that stubborn little heartbeat filled the room - their child who shouldn't even exist. _Their child._

Hand going to her mouth, Umi started to cry.

.*.*.*.

Some time later, Umi staggered out of the room clutching a printout of the ultrasound and a paper confirming her pregnancy, along with several damp tissues. She dropped down into the empty seat beside her mother. "I'm _pregnant_."

"I know, dear." Mama pat her knee, an indulgent smile on her face. "That's why we came, remember?"

"I know, but I - I saw its heartbeat. And its little face…" She handed the picture over and took a deep breath. "Mama, I'm going to have a baby."

.*.*.*.

The last month of the Cephiran year was always a busy one. Between working on all the end of year business and trying to sort out the current scandal in the guild, Clef had resigned himself to not going home to Mazda until the new year. There was simply too much work to be done at the castle.

Aveo was more than capable of handling things without him. Sometimes he wondered if she'd get on better without his meddling in the Ward work at all. He'd called her a few times over the past week, and everything seemed to be running just fine; she seemed more worried about whether he was eating than she was about Mazda.

What tiny amount of free time he wasn't using to catch up on sleep, Clef spent obsessively searching through the chronicles for any instance of someone actually being brought up on charges for either of these two remaining laws. The third, really - he still believed the law on emotion was unenforceable. But the law against dependants - against having _children_...

That morning in a little eked out gap between meetings, Clef finally found something. The chronicle was old and hadn't made it through the ages as well as others - that pillar's fall had also been a bad one. Some of the ink was fading and the paper was crumbling about the edges, but the writing was mostly legible - enough to make out the guilty conviction, and the sentence imposed.

Exile.

Finding an actual case put enough weight behind the final law that it should have made him feel worse, but he just numbly stared at the word for a long time. With a name and a date, he could retrieve the actual court records from the Clerks while he was preparing his repeal for that one; the Guild's master copies had hopefully held up better than the chronicles.

Leaning back in his chair, Clef ran a hand through his hair. _Exile._ If he had to leave Cephiro, perhaps he could go to the other world, to the Tokyo the knights came from. Perhaps instead of Umi coming to him, and staying in Cephiro to learn more about the land and her magic, he could go to her for the course of his sentence and - what?

What could he possibly do that wasn't - this? He'd devoted his entire life to Cephiro. What would he do without his land - how could he be a good partner somewhere he didn't understand and couldn't navigate?

He rubbed his hands over his face. He would just have to learn Umi's Tokyo, as she had learnt about Cephiro.

Maybe he could learn more about this technology that Umi spoke about, and her family's business creating it. Perhaps he wasn't too old to learn the things Umi said she expected her husband to do for her, if she lived in Tokyo. He could learn a skill in something that wasn't a magic related field. Aveo even had hope _one_ day he'd understand how a budget worked.

If they did have a child… he could look after them, perhaps so Umi could go about her business unhindered. After all, she wouldn't be exiled - just him. She could continue her Kairu training, if she wished, and come home to them in Tokyo at nights.

The little fantasy of a family to belong to - just Umi or a child too - hung in his mind until he started laughing uncontrollably, the sound edging closer to a sob, but not quite tipping over.

He wasn't meant to _want_ to be charged and exiled!

But it wouldn't be so bad living out the rest of his life in a foreign land, as long as he still had Umi.

.*.*.*.

Umi's mother took her straight to the ward office to register the pregnancy and get her handbook and coupons she'd need for the rest of her maternity care.

Back at home, Umi sat on the sofa in a bit of a daze. It couldn't be possible for her name to be next to words like 'parent' and 'mother'.

She wasn't the only one. Papa's eyes went wide when Mama greeted him as 'Grampa' with the ultrasound printout. Umi leaned over the back of the sofa to watch her father stumble out of his shoes while trying to take the picture in his hands. "We're keeping it?" he asked, staring at it.

Umi held up her new little book. "Due in May."

"You're okay, right? Completely healthy, nothing wrong?" When she nodded, Papa rubbed the back of his neck and looked back down at the image. "Good. Yes, good."

Her mother sighed fondly at them and went to make tea while the shock wore off. Unfortunately, when it did, her father remembered the other half of the equation.

"Now that you've decided, you'll be telling the father today?" he asked.

"It'll have to wait until next week," Umi muttered, staring at the ultrasound image again when he handed it back. "I've got the festival this weekend, and my class is counting on me."

"One phone call isn't going to ruin your practice schedule," Mama chided. "Even if you want to tell him in person - you could call him up now, and we can take you to see him this evening." The way she said it made them escorting her non-negotiable.

Umi shook off her bewilderment and bit her lip. "I can't call him. He… doesn't actually have a phone."

"How can he not have a phone?" Papa asked, confused. "Not even a landline? What about his workplace, could you call him there?"

"They don't - There aren't really any phones where he lives. Or where he works."

"How can that be?" Mama asked. "Does he live in Tokyo, or not?"

Umi winced. "He doesn't."

Papa frowned. "You said he lived near Tokyo Tower."

"Yes…" Her parents both made confused expressions, and Umi's heart rate was uncomfortably fast. She'd been avoiding trying to explain this for so long and she still didn't know how to even start. "It's complicated."

"Well, uncomplicate it," her mother insisted. "How can anyone live near Tokyo Tower but not in Tokyo? It doesn't make sense."

"No, it doesn't," she said, with a wavering laugh. "I'll try, but I need something from my room. Wait a minute?" She fled upstairs. The idea of just taking them to Tokyo Tower and trying to fling them to Cephiro was so tempting, but she needed to coordinate with Hikaru and Fuu to try that.

At least they had done some preparation for this eventuality. Well, for telling their families about Cephiro, at least.

Umi opened the bottom drawer of her desk and started dumping notebooks out of it. At the very bottom was the envelope of pictures she, Hikaru, and Fuu had taken when they first started visiting Cephiro regularly, in case anyone started asking questions and they needed to explain. They all had copies of the original ones. She'd added newer pictures over the years, and once they'd started sort of seeing one another, Umi had made sure that all of the pictures of Clef looking like a child were hidden elsewhere and the only pictures of him remaining were from the past year.

Envelope clutched to her chest, she walked back downstairs and flopped in a chair facing her parents. "This is going to sound completely unbelievable, but… you remember that trip to Tokyo Tower when I first met Hikaru and Fuu? The three of us…" She took a breath, and set down a photo of the view from their room in the castle, the impossible country with it's floating islands. "We were summoned to another world. Cephiro."

They listened quietly, watching her almost as much as they looked at the photographs, as she told them, as simply as she could, what had happened three years ago and when they'd been called back again.

When she was done she paused and Papa looked up from the picture of the castle in his hand. "Mama and I always said you've never been the same since that school trip," he said softly.

"None of us were." She closed her eyes a moment. "We've been visiting regularly since, trying to help - not that we're much help! And this is Clef." Umi laid his picture down on top of the others. "He's the Guru, the Master Mage."

That statement made Papa tense, even as Mama reached to pick up the photo, studying it. "He's a powerful man, then?" Papa asked.

Umi pulled a face. "Yes, but that's not - he's never even - We've been friends for years, and last summer I realised that I - I _liked_ him, and when he invited me out to his house, I thought it would be nice - since we'd be away from the Castle and the Council - to - um - well…" She bit her lip, blushing again. "He didn't think I'd have time to visit until this winter - or even next summer - because Hikaru and Fuu were going back to school. But I still had two weeks, and I think I pretty much just told him I was turning up. I think he'd have rather waited until the laws changed. I guess that would have been sensible…"

"What laws, Umi?" Mama prompted when she stalled.

She bit her lip again, then just took a breath and charged through it."His job is so important under the old system, he wasn't allowed to be in a relationship. Or have a family. It's sort of treason. And two of the laws about it are still in place the moment, but he's working on fixing that!"

Her parents stared at her for a moment - and then her mother burst into laughter. "Darling, I know you like reading romance novels, but did you have to go get yourself tangled up into a mess to rival any of those stories?" 

"So you believe me?" She looked between them, clutching her hands together. "I'd take you today and show you, but I need Hikaru and Fuu to help."

"It's a lot to take in," Papa said.

Mama looked up from the picture of Clef. "Even if it does complicate things, it's not fair to keep this a secret from him."

"I suppose," Umi said, clutching her hands in her lap, "I could go see him this afternoon? I can take myself without help..."

Her mother reached over and set the picture of Clef back down so it was facing Umi. "I think that would be a good idea."

.*.*.*.

It wasn't until Umi set foot in the receiving hall that she even considered she Clef might not be in the castle. She took a deep breath, which did nothing to calm the thundering beat of her heart and went to look for him. If he wasn't here, she'd just have to figure out how to get out to Mazda. Ascot would probably help.

She'd promised her parents she would tell him today, and she wasn't going home until she'd done so.

The corridors were bustling with people. Umi slipped through them more or less unnoticed as she made her way toward Clef's office. Halfway up the main spiral, she spotted a familiar figure hustling down in her direction. When she called out to him, Ascot stumbled to a halt, peering around until she waved an arm for him to see. He wormed his way through the crowds and stepped aside with her onto one of the landings where there was a little more space.

"I'm looking for Clef," she said before he could ask any complicated questions like 'how are you'.

"He's in a meeting right now, but I can have him pulled out if it's urgent?" Ascot adjusted his hold on the scrolls in his arms, nearly losing his grip on them, staring at the papers instead of meeting her eyes.

She shook her head. "It's fine. It's not urgent, I can wait."

Ascot nodded his head up the spiral. "Clef usually goes back to his rooms for a little while before dinner, if he has time. I can make sure he does if the meeting runs late?"

"Thank you." Umi jogged up towards Clef's suite before she could meet anyone else who might want to talk to her.

.*.*.*.

After yet another aggravating few hours with the Mages Guild, Clef was finally able to escape back to his rooms. The last thing he expected to find when he walked through the door was Umi was sitting at the table, looking into a cup of tea like it would give her the answers she needed.

"Thank the spirits," Clef breathed, taking a step toward her. Seeing her safe was an enormous relief.

Umi murmured "Sorry to intrude" as she leapt to her feet.

"You're always welcome," Clef assured her. "I just - I wasn't expecting you."

"I've been avoiding you," Umi said, flushing and looking down at the floor.

"Yes, I got that." Clef carefully taking a step toward her. "So what brings you here, today of all days?"

"I owe you an apology," she said, voice trembling. "Before you ask, I've seen a doctor, and she said that everything is fine - that… both of us are healthy."

That was all the confirmation he needed, and he was across the room a moment later, pulling her into a tight hug. Umi clung to him, pressing her damp face into the curve of his neck.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Clef." Her voice was barely a whisper. "I really wanted to move in with you, and attend the Academy next year."

He stroked a hand over her hair. "There's nothing stopping you."

Umi stiffened and pulled back to stare at him. "I'm _pregnant_. And I want to keep the child."

"That doesn't mean you need to change your plans."

Shrugging out of his grasp, she took two steps back. "I'm not going to get you into any more trouble. I can just stay in Tokyo and-"

"And keep me from knowing my child?"

Umi's voice went shrill. "It's _treason!_ "

"So is the fact I'm in love with you," Clef shot back. Umi stared at him. "That isn't a _secret_. I should think you, of all people, know my feelings for you. Especially when the entire Council seems to be aware of them."

"The _Council?_ Clef!" Umi backed up farther, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I should - I'm going to -" She went for the door, grabbing her bag off the chair.

"No - Umi, I'm sorry. Please don't go." Clef followed a few steps and stopped. He hadn't meant to frighten her - he'd been living with the jibes in meetings for weeks, now. He'd forgotten Umi wasn't aware of that, of anything that had been going on here while she stayed away from him.

"But -" Umi paused, hand on the door.

"My feelings won't change if you leave me, and there's little they can do about them if you stay. I'm not currently supporting you, nor have I bound my magic to yours."

She turned around with a wild gesture of her hand. "And what about when I _give birth to your baby_?"

"We'll figure that out as we go." Clef tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. "I still want you to move in with me, and I will still help you with studying in any way that I can."

"I just can't. It's -" She shook her head harder. "No. I should just go. I've ruined everything by being an impatient child."

"You haven't ruined anything!"

"I'm _pregnant!_ All because I wanted to sleep with you - because I was too - too impulsive. You wanted to wait, and I should have listened."

"Umi, no - I should have put myself on a potion the moment there was the slightest possibility of something happening." He didn't want her to leave like this, thinking that she'd ruined his life. "Come with me," he pleaded, holding out a hand to her. Umi watched him a moment, then put the bag back down, letting him take her hand and pull her out into the corridor. They walked to the lifts at the back of the tower. Without a word, Clef set the controls to the top floor and took her out on the roof. 

The top of the central tower had been flattened after the reformation, most of it now made up the main landing platform for deliveries and diplomatic vessels. But on nights like this, it was quiet and empty of anyone but them.

Leading her over to the low wall that surrounded the edge of the roof, he waved a hand out toward the rolling hills and the sea glimmering on the golden horizon. "Cephiro still stands," he said. "She is still whole and steady. Nothing has been ruined."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Umi said, pulling her hand free.

"But I think we both need reminding sometimes." Clef leaned forward and rested his arms on the wall. "Cephiro's not going to crumble because we fell in love, and she's certainly not going to come to pieces over the birth of a child."

Umi stood with her arms wrapped about herself, eyes glittering with unshed tears.

Pushing himself upright, Clef reached out for her. His fingers brushed her cheek, magic rippling beneath his touch as she leaned into his hand. "All I want is for the people I care about to be happy." he said carefully, "If leaving me will make you happy, I won't stand in your way."

With a shake of her head, Umi stepped toward him, her voice barely a whisper. "I don't want to go. I've missed you so much, but I don't want to hurt you."

Clef wrapped his arms around her. "Please don't make your decision based on what you think I need. Do what will let you live a happy life." He leaned back slightly so he could look her in the face. The knot in his chest tightened as tears rolled down Umi's cheeks and she took a step back, pulling her hands free from where she'd tangled them into his over-robe.

But she didn't move away.

Umi's hands came up, sliding across his shoulders and up his neck to cup his face. The rush of magic in that touch sent a hopeful tremor through him. "I want to be with you," she said, leaning forward.

For all it's quiet gentleness, the kiss was overwhelming.

Magic arced between them with such ferocity it must have let off visible sparks. Umi's hands were in his hair, dragging him closer. The flood of her power took his breath away.

Hands tangled in hair and tugged at clothing as they both tried to get as close as they could.

A few stumbling steps had Umi against the wall, pulling him in even tighter. Power and more sparked every time they touched skin to skin. Umi's fingers were ticklishly light against his sides and he squirmed forward, his thigh pressing between her legs. 

His hands slid up the skin of her back, under her untucked shirt, drawing a swirl of her power with his touch until - until she was arching against him, gasping his name against his neck, her fingernails digging into his skin.

Then, the roof door swung open and crashed into the wall, making them both jump.

Clef's head shot around; three children came running out the door, the smallest chasing the first two cackling with a fireball in their hand.

"Hey!" Clef shouted. "Take that somewhere else!"

The light went out and the children scrambled back through the door, the last muttering an apology.

When he turned back to Umi, she burst out laughing. "Guess it's not that surprising we're in this mess."

He blinked, taking in her flushed face and disheveled clothing and had to choke back a laugh of his own. The prickling surge of his magic wasn't settling even when he'd moved his hands to rest on Umi's hips. If anything it swelled with the thought that their child was there between them.

Umi dropped her head to his shoulder and sighed. "My parents want to meet you."

That certainly changed the mood, far more than the interruption.

"I'd like to meet them, too." He brushed a stray hair from her face. "Will you be bringing them here?"

"I thought it might be better to try taking you to them. It would be less overwhelming, for them, at least, given they only learned Cephiro exists about two hours ago. If you'd be willing to go to Tokyo?"

"...I'm willing to try." The thought sent a chill down his neck - would he even survive a land without magic? But if the Knights could do it, surely he could, too. He _had_ to. He needed to do anything he could to fix this.

"We don't know if it's safe, or if - It could be dangerous." Her fingers tightened on his robes.

Clef tugged her closer, lips twitching up despite the knot in his stomach. "A part of me has made it to your world safely."

Umi pulled a face and thumped him on the shoulder. "I'm being serious Clef.

"So am I. We won't know unless we try. The spell has never harmed anything you have tried to take with you, only sent them back to Cephiro. Surely it will do the same for me, should Tokyo and I prove incompatible." He leaned in to brush his lips against hers once more, twice, but stopping there before they could get carried away again.

Umi sighed. "I need to go, or I'm going to be late."

Clef pulled her back into a tight hug, not ready to let go of her yet.

"I'll try to coordinate things with Hikaru and Fuu this week. Do you think you'd be able to come with us this weekend?"

"Yes." He'd rearrange whatever he needed to arrange to make the time.

"It'll probably be best to do Sunday, since the school festival's on Saturday. But maybe I could spend the night before here?"

"I'd like that."

.*.*.*.

As soon as she was home from Cephiro, Umi was making phone calls. Now she'd talked to Clef, she needed Hikaru and Fuu on board, and this whole baby thing was not the sort of news she wanted to be telling over the phone - not least because she'd have to decide which of them she was telling _first_.

She'd expected it to be difficult for them to find the time to come over on such short notice, but both sounded relieved to hear from her, and they were both more than willing to come round after school the next day. She hung up and wondered guiltily if baking a cake for them would work as an apology for going silent.

The whole of Tuesday morning felt surreal. Her entire world had changed over the weekend, but sitting in her classroom, nothing at all was different. Everyone and everything was exactly as she'd left it on Saturday. Her classmates all assumed she'd missed school on Monday because she was still feeling poorly and fussed over her. There was even the suggestion that maybe someone else should do her part in the play. Umi wasn't having that, but it was well meant.

The only mentions of pregnancy or babies were the same teasing jabs Satomi had been getting since she'd dared suggest Umi might not have the flu. Umi let them keep thinking it was a joke.

After rehearsal, Umi rushed home. Hikaru and Fuu arrived together, even though Fuu's school was much closer to Umi's house than Hikaru's.

Doing her best to play the role of hostess, Umi led them through to the sitting room, but she'd barely got through offering drinks and snacks when Hikaru burst out with, "Is everything okay? We've been so worried about you!"

Umi dropped into the chair opposite them. "If being pregnant counts as okay, then yeah, I'm fine."

" _Oh!_ " Fuu gasped.

Hikaru stared for a long moment, her eyes growing steadily wider. "So that's why you looked brighter!"

It was Umi's turn to stare. "Brighter?"

"When we're in Cephiro I can see - Well, I guess it would be your magic. Or maybe it's your life force? It's something like that, at least. Recently, you've had an extra sort of... glow? Which I just thought - especially after I knew you were seeing Clef -" she blushed a little "-meant you were having really good sex."

"Too good, obviously." Umi pulled a face. 

"This is Master Clef's baby, is it not?" Fuu's voice was quiet.

"It certainly isn't anyone else's!"

"Are you keeping it?" 

"Yes." She took a breath and rubbed a hand over her face. It wasn't like she wouldn't ask a friend the same question. "I just - I need to get Clef and my parents in the same place - soon."

Hikaru and Fuu exchanged a look and Fuu pulled a notebook out of her bag. "Are we bringing your parents to Cephiro, or is Master Clef coming to Tokyo?

"I think it's better to bring Clef to Tokyo first. He's willing to try, but we didn't get much time to talk about it."

They spent the next hour laying out a plan. Hikaru offered to bring some clothes for Clef to borrow, to minimise the chance of him appearing in Tokyo naked given Cephiran _items_ never seemed to make the trip. Kakeru was probably the closest fit, and he had an old school uniform he wouldn't miss if something happened to it.

If they arrived in Cephiro Saturday evening - after Umi and Fuu's cultural festivals - it would give them time to rest up for the jump back and talk through the plan with Clef before trying to drag him over. With everything sorted the night before, they should be able to leave first thing in the morning. So long as all went to plan, Umi would then take Clef shopping for more appropriate clothing and then on to meet her parents. They'd then meet up again that evening to take him back.

Umi stared at the notes. "That seems far too simple."

"Simple is good," Hikaru said, grinning. "But I'm sure when we ask Clef for advice on the spell he can complicate it for you, if you like."

"Oh, I complicate things well enough on my own."

Hikaru and Fuu laughed. "I think you had some help with this particular complication," Fuu said.

"Well, we'll just have to make it work, whatever complications come up." Umi's hands crinkled the edge of the paper. If it went wrong, if he was _hurt_...

Hikaru grabbed her hands, holding them tightly until Umi looked up at her. "We brought Eagle back safely. We'll definitely keep Clef safe, too," she promised, so fiercely that Umi had to believe her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **In the next chapter:** Clef travels to Tokyo.
> 
> How do you think that will go?
> 
>  
> 
> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts are loved. I read and appreciate every one, whether here, on fanfiction.net, tumblr, or email. Reading your thoughts makes me smile.


	17. In which Clef travels to Tokyo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Down for the help with this chapter, and letting me borrow Miura so I didn't have to invent my own Head of the Healers Guild for this fic. Despite lots of tears and both of us having terrible fevers the past two weeks, this chapter is finally finished. I'm happy to be able to share it with all my faithful readers. (I'll get back to answering comments this week. It's been a rough two weeks)
> 
> If anyone sees any glaring errors that I missed, please feel free to point them out.

The Mage's Guild meeting on Thirdday running long wasn't good on Clef's nerves in the first place, but they finally got to the call for any other business. Clef stood and in a voice which was remarkably calm in the circumstances, so he thought, announced he would be taking a brief leave of absence from Cephiro come Firstday.

There was nothing but silence for a moment and then the room erupted and kept erupting. People were asking where he was going, and how long for? Those were almost reasonable questions. Then there were ones asking how they were meant to hold Cephiro without him? Did he want to come back to _rubble_? Leaving Cephiro without a Guru for several hours was irresponsible and dangerous! _Those_ commenters stretched his temper to the breaking point, until he slammed his hand down on the table with enough emotion to send sparks up about his fingers and leave a charred handprint behind.

"Cephiro will not crumble without me holding her together! Just because I once stepped in and held on a tightly as I could, doesn't mean I'm still acting like some sort of buttress. Between the two dozen ward circles and spirit rings, there should be no problem holding Cephiro together for the better part of a single day. Nor has that ever been a part of the Guru's job description!"

He didn't add aloud that, if the trip snapped his magic - or worse - they could hold it just as well until his replacement was instated. That was the whole idea behind the circles. 

It didn't stop the panicked grouching at him. It would have helped if all the Wardens had been present to attest they were doing their job without his interference perfectly well, thank you, but the Wardens didn't sit on the Guild council unless they happened to have another job that gave them a seat, and he was the only one actually present. (He was the only one fool enough to have multiple full-time jobs.) In the end, he left the meeting in a huff and stormed back to his rooms.

It took a little while before he was calm enough to make his call to Aveo back at the main house. As his second, she needed to know - he'd put off telling her until he'd run the gauntlet of the Guild meeting, but now he had no reasonable excuses left, and he was only going to worry about what she would say until he got it over with. He still paced the floor until the mirror cleared and she appeared in the surface in place of his reflection.

"Clef, what's wrong?" she asked. "Did something happen?"

"Not yet." He sighed. "I need to tell you I will be attempting to travel to Tokyo on Firstday. I have no idea what that will do - what it will do to anything. To Mazda. You'll have to hold the Ward while I'm gone, but you do that a lot of the time already. I'm sure Cephiro will hold, and I think I'll be okay-"

"You _think_?" Aveo's voice was sharp.

"It's a bit further than Autozam, and there's no magic there." He dropped into the desk chair and rubbed a hand over his face. His voice dropped low. "I'm honestly not sure if I will actually survive the trip. I should, but. No one has attempted it before."

"If you don't return before the next Council meeting, Uncle-mine, I will personally come and hunt you down. Whether in that other world or the world to come."

Clef snorted out half a laugh. He could just picture Aveo ripping a hole between worlds to drag him back so she didn't have to attend a Council meeting. "I should be back in Cephiro by the end of that day."

"If I don't at least hear from you by Secondday, I am going to come looking." The warning in her voice faded into a sigh. "I hope you two sort out whatever this problem is. I'm sick of seeing you so upset all the time."

Clef hesitated, then nodded instead of replying before he cut the connection without a farewell. That would probably get him scolded next time they spoke, but he didn't know what to say to her. Depending on how meeting Umi's family went, he might have some very different news. He had no doubt that Umi would argue with them over being allowed to continue seeing him, but with a child…

It might well be the most sensible thing for all of them for her to cut off all contact with him for the next few years. 

He couldn't stand the thought of that time without her, with or without their child, but he certainly understood the logic of it. Her parents would be in the right to demand he make reparations for being so irresponsible as to allow this to happen, and beyond staying away and letting them know and raise the child as a part of their family, there was nothing else he could grant her in Tokyo. 

Not that he knew what to expect from this meeting, outside of the stilted, awkward scenes that occasionally turned up in novels. He'd never been in a relationship as serious as this, and had certainly never been introduced to anyone's family.

He'd never even thought to introduce Umi to what family he had left, though he seemed to have already done so.

Dropping his head in his hands, Clef let out a shaking breath. Four and a half days to go. He just needed to keep his head together in the meantime. There was so much work to deal with in the Guild right now, he should have plenty to occupy himself with.

.*.*.*.

Saturday evening, Umi walked into Clef's rooms with only one goal in mind - and it wasn't getting him out of his clothes. She was focused on devouring the hamburgers in the paper bag she'd brought with her from Tokyo. 

She'd been looking forward to her last school festival for months, but when it finally came around, she'd been miserable. Her class were performed late in the program, so she had to endure the food stands for hours. The smells had the unfortunate effect of making her feel horribly ill and overwhelmingly hungry at the same time, and there had been almost no place on campus to escape. She thought the play had gone okay; she hadn't flubbed up her choreography, but her memory was clouded by the smell from the 'American diner' class 3-D had been running just down the hall.

At least she'd been able to take part.

By the time she'd met up with Hikaru, she'd been craving a burger and onion rings for what felt like hours. The fast-food restaurant closest to the Tower had made her feel so nauseated she couldn't make herself set foot inside, but that hadn't kept her from handing money to Hikaru and begging her to buy them.

Dumping her other bags and shoes at the door, Umi waved briefly at Clef as he started up from the sofa where he'd been sat with his nose in a book, and sat down at the table with her meal.

"What's that?" Clef asked, as Umi unwrapped the glorious thing, murmured a thank you for the food, and took a bite.

"Hamburger," she answered, once she'd swallowed the first satisfying mouthful. "I got you one too, if you want it. I'll eat it if you don't." She pushed the bag toward him.

Clef took a seat and picked up the second paper-wrapped sandwich. Carefully unwrapping it, he poked at it, looking at the lettuce and tasting the sauces with his finger before he took a tentative bite, chewing carefully before swallowing and looking back at the burger. "Isn't this a bit greasy for you right now?" 

"Don't even start. It's been a trying week, I should be allowed to indulge a little." Umi reached over and tugged the bag back so she could get to the fries. "I wanted a chocolate shake too, but Hikaru wouldn't get one for me. I guess that would have been even harder to get into the Tower. It was really crowded this evening."

"I just meant you're sure it won't upset your stomach?"

"I honestly don't care right now," Umi told him, but she felt fairly certain it would be okay. Her stomach had been behaving itself more often than otherwise, this week, except when she was completely overwhelmed by a cacophony of smells.

They worked their way through the two burgers and a side each of fries and onion rings. Clef seemed particularly partial to the onion rings, and Umi had to practically fight him to get her fair share. It was still the best meal she'd had in weeks.

"You look better, you know," he said, not quite absently as he ate one of the last fries. "Not so thin."

Umi eyed him suspiciously. "Are you saying I look fat?"

"No, you just look healthier than you did a few weeks ago." His lips curled into a crooked smile. "You look _good_."

Umi's face flushed hot. "Well, you look all bony still." She reached across and poked his cheekbone where it was clearer than even normal, leaving a smudge of grease on his skin. "Hasn't Aveo been chasing you around with dinner?" 

"I haven't exactly been home in a while. There's been some Guild business - I've been busy. But you don't have to worry, Ascot's started coming and looking _worried_ at me if I haven't gone to dinner after an hour."

"Good," she muttered, and let him wave her away from the table to go wash her hands while he cleared the rubbish away. 

Hands clean, she flopped onto the settee and picked up the book Clef had left behind when she came in. Cephiran script was almost weirder in print than in cursive, all sharp and angular in its strange shapes. She much preferred the way it looked in Clef's handwriting - any handwriting really - even if she couldn't read much beyond their names and titles.

Lazily thumbing through it, Umi found a page of thicker paper with an illustration. She imagined it must be the hero and heroine of the story given they way they were gazing longingly at one another. It was beautiful, all soft colours and light. The clothing looked a little like some of the things she'd seen the visitors from Fahren wearing on occasion.

"Am I still going home with you tomorrow?" Clef asked, putting on the kettle.

"As long as you're still happy to," Umi said, flicking through the book to find more pictures, determined not to worry about tomorrow before she needed to. "We can discuss details of how to get you there with Hikaru and Fuu after dinner."

"You're still hungry?"

"No, but they're probably eating right now."

The next image was of the same two people sharing a romantic kiss with a golden sunset behind them, but the one after that that nearly made her drop the book. The same couple again, this time in a passionate embrace. There were hands very blatantly slipping under clothing and into not-so-public places, and they were very definitely not just kissing.

It wasn't like Umi hadn't seen illustrations of people having sex - she and Mako had been reading the smutty manga Daichi passed on to Huki for years - she just hadn't expected _Clef_ to be reading something like it.

"Is this pornography?" she asked, holding up the book.

Clef walked over with a tea tray, glancing at the page. "Don't your romance books have love scenes in them?"

"Not _illustrated_ ones!" Umi stared at the picture and back at Clef who was calmly pouring tea. "Are these sorts of pictures normal in your books?"

"It depends where they come from." He held out a cup to her.

Umi dropped back down on the settee and stared at yet another illustration page when she took her tea from him. That position the two characters were in could be best described as _acrobatic_. "Is that even physically possible?" she asked.

Clef leaned over to take a look. "I'm not actually sure?" He turned back to the teapot, pouring himself a cup. "It doesn't look comfortable, though."

Unfortunately, however impossible some of the positions looked, by the time she set down the book Umi was feeling more than a little worked up. But they still had to meet Hikaru and Fuu; there really wasn't time to get distracted.

She tried to think of uninspiring things. There were several of those. "My parents are going to expect you to marry me. We'll have to explain why you can't do that, and that's going to be awkward."

"They will understand I don't have any of the paperwork you mentioned was necessary, I'm sure. At least, once they've seen Cephiro, if you're planning on bringing them here."

Umi shook her head. "Papa's already worked that one out. I told you he was in politics, right? He knows a lot of people. He wouldn't normally do something like that, but in the circumstances… he's said he can fix that." Which had been something of a surprise. "No, I meant it being illegal for you."

"Well, if he can find a way around the paperwork, is that something you would want? To marry me?" Clef asked, and Umi stared at him.

"We already had this argument! Clef, it's _treason!_ "

"So is this child." He pressed a hand to her abdomen and smiled. "Besides, I wouldn't be marrying you in Cephiro; I'd be marrying you in Tokyo."

"How is that _any different_? Cephiro recognises other countries' laws, right? That's how Caldina was acknowledged as old enough to be Ascot's guardian, we heard all about that."

"And you just happened to conveniently forget about that when talking about your own age? Anyway, it is different. If we get married in Tokyo, there won't be any paperwork about it in Cephiro for people to find."

" _Clef!_ " She dropped her head to his shoulder, exasperated. "I'm serious! There might be a bit of - talk, but you don't have to marry me. I could always marry Huki, instead."

Clef stilled. "Do you want to marry Huki? I thought -"

"No." She shook her head. "But this is all going to turn into scandalous gossip if I'm not married to _someone_ by the time it's obvious, and I know Huki and I could make it work. We've been friends since - well, practically since we were born."

"Didn't you say marriage is supposed to be an exclusive sort of relationship?" he asked. Umi nodded guiltily. "Wouldn't it cause more of a scandal when the child doesn't look like your partner?"

Umi stared as him as the words sunk in. "I forgot the baby's going to look like _you_ too!" She dropped her head on his shoulder. There went that back-up plan. It was either marry Clef or hide the baby in Cephiro if she wanted to protect the Ryuuzaki reputation, which clashed horribly with any plans of hiding the baby in Tokyo and _not_ marrying Clef to protect _his_ reputation.

Clef wrapped his arms around her. "I would be happy to marry you, if that's what you want, illegal though it may be. If they do pull me up on charges, well, I can always come to Tokyo and look after home and child for you, if you'll have me."

Her breath caught "Really?"

"Yes." He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, then to her forehead, just as gently. "Who knows, you might even find some job I can do in this company of yours. Cleaner, maybe?"

Umi knew he was trying to distract her from the terrifyingly serious statement he'd just made, but it worked - the image of Clef in a cleaner's uniform bowing to her mother as she left a meeting was too much and she burst into giggles that wouldn't quit until it was time to meet the others.

.*.*.*.

Clef decided a practical lesson on translocation would be more useful than just an explanation, so they only talked things over for a few minutes before he took them outside for a few practice runs, in the hope that might ease all their minds a little. It wasn't hard to explain the theory when they'd been working a harder relation of this spell to get themselves here and home again for several years. Bringing someone along was a little more complicated, but it was one of those spells that was more about power and control than it was technique - ideally suited to the Knights, who had power and will in abundance.

Hikaru was the first to make the jump, frowning with concentration as she took Clef's hands and her magic wrapped about them both, hot but comforting. They landed outside the kitchen gardens and she let out a pleased shout of victory, dancing in a happy circle which Clef couldn't help but smile at before she took his hands again and sent them both back.

Fuu's spell worked with a bit more finesse when she brought Clef to the little taiya orchard where Ferio had been drafted by the gardeners to help with pruning the trees, her power swirling them into place in a grove almost at his feet; Ferio yelped at their appearance, and Fuu just twinkled mischievously up at him, before whisking Clef away without any explanation.

Clef was sometimes glad that Umi didn't have a pinch of subtlety or sneakiness anywhere in her. 

Then it was her turn. When he offered Umi his hand, she took a step back from him. "Should you be doing this?" she asked, glancing up at the bulk of the castle above them, and the many windows. 

His mouth twitched up slightly. "There are a number of things I shouldn't be doing with you. This is definitely the least of them."

"But -"

Umi had been keeping her distance during his explanation, being more of an observer than a participant in the lesson, but he wasn't going to let her get away without practicing the spell at all. Besides, he had several hours of lessons he could still give without being caught in that particular trap. 

"Are you saying you can't handle a simple translocation spell?" he challenged, trying and failing not to grin at her. "You can move an ocean, but you can't move me across the gardens?"

Crossing her arms, Um narrowed her eyes at him. "I didn't say that I couldn't do it."

"Prove it."

With a huff of annoyance, Umi took his hands like the other two had done before her. Her magic washed over him clean and cool as spring water, leaving his skin tingling as they landed.

Clef had anticipated Umi taking him to the edge of the training fields, or one of the pretty little flower gardens Caldina was always dragging the girls out to for tea. The last place he'd expected to be that evening was the base of the third tower, standing just a few paces from the patio that ran out from the small cafe, shut at this hour. He looked from the empty tables over to Umi.

"You said favourite place," she murmured, her cheeks going slightly pink in the golden light.

Those first weeks after she'd kissed him, Clef hadn't been sure he could trust himself to be alone with her. He knew what she wanted from him, and it terrified him how much he wanted the same, so he started to insist they meet in public - places like this little cafe - to take tea and talk like they'd always done in his office. He'd told her it was because he was trying to take everyone's advice and not work every hour of the day, but he knew she never had believed him.

"I said favourite place in the gardens." His voice cracked slightly.

Umi shrugged. "It's garden-ish."

Clef gave her hands a squeeze and pulled her close enough to take them back himself, rather than having her cast again - she was trembling slightly and didn't need to overdo it. After reappearing by the others he dropped her hand, but she stayed close enough to his side that their fingers still brushed as the lesson turned into a more general discussion of tomorrow's plans.

.*.*.*.

Between the school festival, travelling to Cephiro, and translocating Clef across the gardens, Umi was too exhausted to be embarrassed by bidding Hikaru and Fuu goodnight when she followed Clef into his suite. She turned down the offer of a bath and simply changed into one of Clef's nightshirts before crawling into bed.

But sleep didn't come quickly. She was so tired her mind wouldn't stop spinning in circles, fretting over what might happen tomorrow.

At home, in a mood like this, she would quite often use her mini-disk player to distract her from her own thoughts until she fell asleep, but she hadn't thought to bring it with her. While she eventually managed to push tomorrow out of her head, it was only because it was replaced by the fear she'd been fighting to ignore since she'd made the decision to go through with the pregnancy - giving birth.

Starting the baby had been fun and exciting - if completely unintentional - but getting it out just sounded all kinds of terrifying. Umi buried her face in the pillow, but that didn't stop the thoughts already in her head. It just made it difficult to breathe. Flopping over onto her back she stared up at the ceiling, trying to think about anything else.

She rubbed her hands over her face. It was ridiculous. She'd had enough injuries in those first two stays in Cephiro that she knew she could fight despite deep gashes and blood running down her arms, but one little baby was too much? The idea of keeping it healthy and alive afterward should possibly be the greater concern since she hadn't the faintest idea of what to do with a baby - she'd been more interested in climbing trees and starting sword fights with walking sticks as a child than playing with dolls.

Umi threw herself out of bed and went for the door. She needed a cup of tea, a hug, or basically anything else but laying alone in the quiet. She opened the bedroom door to find Clef half-asleep at the kitchenette, pouring hot water from the kettle into a teapot. A towel was still draped over his shoulders to protect his pyjamas from his hair that he obviously hadn't dried yet.

"I don't want to give birth!" she wailed at him.

Clef startled, turned, and stared at her. "Okay…" he said carefully, and then nothing else for a moment. He was opening his mouth again when the teapot overflowed beside him; he yelped and took a leap back when the water hit his bare feet. 

Umi shot across to help, reaching out with her magic and sending the water on the countertop spilling back the other way until it cascaded into the sink instead as Clef hastily set the kettle down and yanked the towel off his shoulders to dry up the worst of the mess. 

"You don't have to, if you really don't want to," he said, still on his knees and looking at the floor.

Dropping into the closest seat, Umi stared at him. She hadn't considered that there might be an alternative. Then again Cephiro was the weirdo land where will determined all. "Really?" she asked. "Does Cephiro have some sort of cool spell for getting the baby out when it's ready?"

That look of confusion on Clef's face was enough to tell her that they had just started two vastly different conversations. "When they're - ah. No, unfortunately, most healers encourage the old-fashioned way as best, unless there is some sort of complication." He still didn't move from where he knelt his knuckles nearly white from how hard he was gripping the towel. "If you don't want to continue-"

"Hey!" She held up a hand to stop him going any further with that statement. "As ridiculous as it sounds, I want to meet this child and see what kind of person we made. I just - I don't want to do the whole giving birth thing to do it."

Clef let out a sigh so quiet Umi wasn't sure she heard it before busying himself making two cups of tea and bringing them over to the low table. "I may have some bad news for you about that."

Umi pulled a face at him, but when he sat down on the settee, she moved over to join him.

"Both pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous, so it's only natural to be apprehensive," Clef said, handing her a steaming mug.

"Yeah, that's not helping the whole being freaked out thing."

"My mother had eleven of us, so it can't have been _that_ bad?" he offered.

"Mine always says she thought once was more than enough. And yours didn't do it that many times _intentionally_. You said you were an accident."

"That may be, but I'm quite sure most of my siblings weren't."

Umi nearly protested his ability to know that, but she didn't really want to fight. Instead, she sipped her tea and just leaned into his side. 

Clef wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. "Do you want something different to worry about tonight?" he asked, his voice carrying a hint of mischief.

"Like what?"

"Well, supposing I make it to your world safely tomorrow, what are the chances this translation spell doesn't work on anyone besides you three? Or doesn't work outside of Cephiro at all?"

Umi pulled back to look at him, halfway between horrified and cracking up. Of all the things that might happen, she hadn't actually considered that they technically spoke completely different languages. The idea of having to play translator between him and her parents was hilarious despite how terrible the reality would probably be if it did happen - well, if it did, her parents might just end up coming here tomorrow after all. 

Huffing out a soft laugh she leaned back into his side and sipped her tea as Clef quietly told her about his day, details from his meetings over the past week, and little bits about what legislation was currently being debated in Council. The sort of soothing minutiae that always helped her settle when she couldn't sleep. It had been months since she'd wandered into his office late into the night, but this hadn't changed, and by the time they curled up in bed together she fell asleep almost before the light was off.

.*.*.*.

Umi woke better rested than she had in days, but that was the only bright point to her morning. Picking up her watch off the bedside table, she swore when she saw the time. She and Clef were supposed to be meeting with Fuu and Hikaru _now_. 

She flailed out of bed all but shrieked as she threw open the bedroom door. "You didn't wake me up!"

She barely heard Clef say "I thought you could use the extra sleep" because the person she was staring at was definitely not Clef. A small, round woman - a healer, if her robes could be trusted - was sat on the settee and looked just as surprised to see Umi as Umi was to see her.

Umi threw herself back into the bedroom, slamming the door safely shut behind her. She leaned back against the door and clutched a hand over her pounding heart. Why did she think it was a good idea to stay the night with him? They should have just talked and kissed, and then she should have collected her stuff and gone up with Hikaru and Fuu!

Rubbing a hand over her face, she took a deep breath.

It was fine. Clef was allowed to have lovers. That was all this looked like. Right? For all that healer knew, she and Clef had slept together last night, nothing more. It wasn't like everyone could tell she was pregnant by looking at her. 

Well, Hikaru could.

But even if they knew that, they wouldn't know it was his. Would they?

Umi shook the worried thoughts out of her head. She would just get dressed and go wait for him with Fuu and Hikaru, grabbing something to eat on the way down. The only problem with that plan was the fact she'd left her overnight bag by the main suite door.

Pulling Clef's dressing gown on over her borrowed nightclothes, Umi stalked out of the bedroom to fetch her bag.

Clef was sitting in the chair opposite the healer with a teacup in one hand and a handful of papers in the other. He looked up at her from over the papers with an annoyingly pleasant "Good morning."

"We're going to be _late_ , Clef!" she growled, stomping the rest of the way back to the bedroom.

.*.*.*.

The bedroom door slammed shut again and Clef stared at it. Maybe he shouldn't have let Umi sleep so long, but she'd just looked so tired by the time he'd finally gotten her back to bed. He hadn't intended to let her sleep _this_ long, but he hadn't been anticipating Miura turning up at his door with a report she needed him to sign off some changes in before a meeting that afternoon. 

Miura looked back at Clef with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't tell me you had company."

Clef shrugged. "I wasn't inviting you into my bed; it didn't seem relevant."

"Really," she said, flatly. As Master Healer she'd been in every irritated Council meeting, but as far as he knew she'd got out of Ouran's ball - she normally managed to be 'on duty' when the big formal events were happening - so she'd not actually met Umi before so far as he knew. From the exasperated look he was getting, that hadn't stopped Miura managing to identify who had come flailing out of his bed.

Any further comment was interrupted by a flushed and fully dressed Umi thumping back out of the bedroom to head for the door. She nearly tripped over pulling on a pair of shoes and glaring at him at the same time. "You have fifteen minutes," she warned. "I _will_ be back to get you if you're not down by then."

The main door closed behind her, and Clef turned his attention back to the report and Miura. He set down his cup and made an abbreviated gesture with his hand. "She's just-"

"I don't want to know the details. Why didn't you suggest we went to your office?" 

"You'd have known something was up if I had, I've never bothered doing so before," he retorted, and Miura's lips might have twitched a little. 

"True, but you could have been polite and at least left her a note warning her I was here - though I suppose she probably doesn't read Cephiran?" There went any chance she'd not known who Umi was, but Miura just looked him over with a measuring gaze. "How long has it been since your last standard healer's appointment?"

"Ah…" It had been longer than recommended for someone of his age, and Clef knew Miura wouldn't accept any excuse he might give her. "Two… and… a bit?"

"Months, decades, or centuries?" she muttered. Clef kept his mouth shut as Miura moved over to give him a check-up herself.

"It's really not necessary," he argued but knew there was no escaping it. This whole visit had probably been a ruse to check up on him, and Miura was more than stubborn enough to be head of the Healer's Guild and manage all sorts of awkward patients, himself included.

"Think of it this way, if this is a visit as your healer, it's privileged information what happened and no one can make me testify about who I might have seen in your rooms," she pointed out, and Clef sighed and tried his best not to fidget too badly as she cast various diagnostic spells over him. "Oh, that's cute." Miura pulled on his roughly cast protection charm. "It's effective, I'll give you that, but that's a terrible casting." She pulled it off and he felt the soft chill of a new one sweep over his skin and settle on. "Those girls are here quite often, aren't they?"

"Yes…?" Clef wasn't sure he trusted where this was going.

Miura finished and started gathering up her papers while he retrieved a pen and signed off the changes she'd needed his agreement for - Healer training was a joint responsibility with the Mage's guild, but he generally left it in her hands. "I expect to see all three of their names in the infirmary register within the next month."

"I'll speak to Umi about it," he promised, walking her out, and returning to the bedroom to don the clothing Hikaru had brought him to wear. The shirt was brightly patterned and clashed rather horribly with the trousers that had also been in the bag. Both fit well enough - the trousers better with a belt and the hems rolled up twice, but he was at least decently clothed. He shoved his feet into the shoes that were nearly too big to be comfortable and went down to the receiving hall.

Umi was chatting with Hikaru and Fuu when he walked in, looking far more put together than when she'd rushed out. Her hair was neatly pulled back into a more complex braid than a simple plait, and Clef realised now her clothes were far more formal than her usual visiting attire; a pretty pink little top and a skirt with a bold pattern accentuated with metallic threads.

Hikaru waved him over with a cheerful "Good morning!"

"Took you long enough." Umi glanced at the timepiece on her wrist, and back at him. "We're going to be late."

Clef sighed. "You said we weren't meeting your parents until after lunch time."

"We still have to go shopping, so you are not meeting them wearing _that_!" She waved a hand at him. "You will be dressed formally, not in tacky clothes that don't even fit you."

"Hey!" Hikaru said.

"Oh, don't you even start. You know perfectly well that Kakeru has terrible taste in clothes," Umi snapped at Hikaru, who pulled a face. 

"I wasn't expecting him to have donated his old uniforms to a friend, sorry. At least these should make it to Tokyo?"

Umi took a slow deep breath in and then out before turning back to Clef. "My parents are sending the car to pick us up at Tokyo Tower in less than two hours. We need to get to Piffle, get you a respectable suit, and be back in time to meet that car. Lunch will hopefully happen somewhere in there too. I hope you're up to running."

"If we must," Clef said.

Umi narrowed her eyes. "Next time you have a meeting in the next room, please let me know before I make a fool of myself again."

"You were _asleep_!" he shot back.

"Because you didn't wake me up!"

Fuu stepped between them as the air started to crackle. "Perhaps you could wait to finish this argument once we have made it safely to Tokyo?"

The four of them shuffled into a circle. Clef positioned himself between Hikaru and Fuu in the hope that it would lessen some of the strain on Umi, gripped their hands tightly, and took a deep breath as their combined magic washed the world away with a blinding light.

He knew this was going to be more than a jump across Cephiro, but he hadn't expected the spell to feel like was ripping his heart from his chest. His breath caught in his throat, and he choked as the barrier between their worlds tore through him. 

They coalesced, his hands still tightly grasped, in a place he barely registered as full of people and surrounded by great windows and the sweep of a strange sky, but he still couldn't catch his breath, and his chest was banded with overwhelming pain.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Umi's worried face.

.*.*.*.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All questions, comments, and happy thoughts are loved.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions or concerns about this fic and want a definite answer on where things are going (since I don't put spoilers in the comments) or you would just like to discuss this or any of my other stories with me, you are welcome to email me at milieva.p@gmail.com. This is also my public Apple Messages user ID, if you just want to chat. And there is always [a thread for this fic series over on the Cephiro forum](http://cephiro.psynos.net/index.php?topic=611.0) or you can find me in the [Cephiro Discord Server](https://discord.gg/Zhr8cfe).


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